A/N: Woopsies people, I'm having a really wacky update schedule. The spring break is really throwing me off of mah curfew, now that I have all the sleep that I want! :D:D:D Ah, gotta enjoy it while it lasts. And wooowzers people, up to 160 reviews and 8,000 views from readers! Never thought I'd make it this far! Thanks to you all! To reviews!
BookWormBri: Awww! Interesting take on Pitch's job. I love it! :D All I can say is keep on writing, you're really good!
Ehehe, thank you! =^_^= I'd like to think of his job that way. It makes him seem more human and his job very important in a way.
Xion5: OH MY GOD THE FEEEEEEELLLLLLLLSSSSSSS! The beautiful beautiful feels! XDDD
That was totally awesome! I'm always so happy when authors do this sort of this in their stories where you actually talk about how necessary fear is and address Pitch's past! It's wonderful when he's actually given some recognition. :)
The chapter was awesome as always! Please try and update the next chapter soon because I can't wait to see what happens next! :D
Oh, thanks lots! :D For like they say, there cannot be courage without fear...kinda like yin and yang, you need one for the other! X) Philosphical moment back there…
PrettyKityy Luvs U: Oh dude I'm crying! :'( Poor Pitch! Poor Amara...*sniffs* Aw Dude! that was sooo sweeet. Her cobsoling Pitch and him consoling her... Aaahh... Really loved it :')
Here ya go bro *hands tissue and gives an awkward hug* BRO HUG! XD There's many more feels where that came from! ;D
PandaPuppet: I haven't read the book yet, but Emily was his daughter who later turned into Mother Nature or something like that—right?
Yes, yes indeed. Though Mother Nature is pretty much the most neutral character you'd know. She doesn't side with the Guardians no matter how good their intentions are, nor Pitch no matter how much bad his intentions are as well. She's not so big on reconciling with her father, so it's kinda tragic. :(
InspectorZebra: If I not said it before, this is my favorite chapter! So much feels.
Ahaha, like I said at the beginning of last chapter, get ready for a feel trip! :D
fantasyinfinity: *strange sniffling sounds could be heard* MY FEELS. Awesome and lovely chapter. I just... my feels, k.
Aw brucacho. *hands tissue and pats back* ...But you know that there's more where that came from, know what I mean? ;D
qeaz22: This is a great story! Can't wait for the next update! By the way, is chapter 25 supposed to be the same as chapter 23?
Thanks for the review and for telling my mistake in chapters! I fixed it, so you can go read it and check it out! Though I don't think my replica of the original of Chapt 23 was as good… T^T Ah well.
beautywithin: ITS BEAUTIFUL! Wonder what the guardians reactions will be :D
Aha, thanks! :3 I'm sure that the Guardians WILL be surprised…
MysticHawk: Well, congratulations Bunnymund. You just won the 'biggest dick of the year' award. And is anyone surprised by this? *Crickets and someone coughs*
I didn't think so. Anyway, wonderful chapter! Heading on to the next one!
Heyheyhey, glad to see you're up and about round the internet, and that your computer is fixed! And yeah, Bunny DID pull a d*ck move at that chapter...but I did wrote him that way. XD
MysticHawk: Awwww! So cute! Ok, the rocks thing was utter genius, and Bunny admitting that he's worried about Pitch is just too precious! Knowing you, the next bit will be absolutely adorable fluff with Amara and Pitch and I can't wait for more!
Thanks! I made the rock candy up...BUT I'M SURE THAT SOMETHING LIKE THAT EXISTS. Maybe. Meh. And yes, Bunny does have a heart, that fluffy rock! Yeah, I just called him a rock...that's fluffy. XD Yep, there's way more fluff that I can pull up my sleeve.
MysticHawk: I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! LOVELY LOVELY FEELS! Can't wait for more!
Feeeeeeeeelllllll trip! XDXDXD
~Chapter Twenty-Five~
Amara clutches the cold hand of Pitch Black, the boogeyman, as they walk blindly in the darkness they are wandering through. She could only hear the sounds of her heavy breathing, the soft even breaths of Pitch, and their foot steps. It showed Amara what absolute silence really was. She blinks, never getting used to the smoldering darkness that the two were in. "Can you even see in the dark?" Amara questions, squinting her eyes in hope of seeing the trail she left, or some type of light. She sighs. No luck.
"But of course," Pitch answers, and even though Amara couldn't see him, she could practically see him rolling the eyes on his face. "What part of boogeyman do you not understand child?" He chuckles deeply.
The girl huffs in agitation, looking to the direction where she could hear the husky British voice of Pitch. "So what, are you a puma or something?"
"But of—wait, NO!" Pitch exclaims, stopping abruptly in their tracks, probably frowning in disgruntlement despite the darkness they were in. Amara cracks a smile saying, "Well, it's pretty damn obvious. With your weird gold eyes, gray colored skin, and black emo clothing—"
"I am not emo you impudent girl!"
"Aha, yeah right! As I was saying, with that angsty air about you—"
"—Dear Manny, all of the sympathy I had for you just vanished—"
"You're obviously part puma." Amara finishes, satisfaction in her tone.
Pitch raises an eyebrow, although Amara couldn't see it. "Do you even know if pumas could see in the dark?"
"...Yeah! Cuz pumas are cats!"
"Just what kind of grown-ups teach you?"
"Just what kind of education do you get?" Amara snarks, sticking her tongue out. She hears Pitch scoff in answer, with the two of them continuing to walk, hand in hand. It's funny thing that Amara notices, though that her hand is warm and sweaty, Pitch's hand stayed absolutely cool. It was comforting in a way. Amara's thoughts trail back to the locket that she saw Pitch had. The picture of his daughter. Which was an alien thing to think of.
"Your turn," Amara says aloud. She tightens her grip around Pitch's hand. This was probably a touchy subject she was diving into about Pitch, but being a kid, she's just curious.
"What do you mean by that?" Pitch questions, glancing around for any signs of the Guardians or familiar spots.
"I mean," the red head begins carefully, choosing her words. "I told most of my past. You never told me yours. I mean...what happened to your daughter?" The grasp of Pitch's hand noticeably goes stiff around Amara's, starting to loosen from hers. She closes her hand around Pitch's big hand even tighter, not going to let him go.
"It's really personal," Amara chimes in, knowing she breached a point. "But...c'mon, I just want to know you better!"
Silence. For a moment.
Pitch sighs deeply. "You're that perceptive, aren't you?" His other hand reaches into the pocket of where he put his prized locket in, though Amara couldn't see. He squeezes his hand around it, his eyes squeezing shut as well. "I would never admit this in front of the Guardians, or hardly anyone else, so consider yourself a very lucky child. Who's still sane and has her good dreams intact."
"Oh goodie!"
"Shush. Though I would never admit it I...I made many bad choices back then, and lived a vengeful and bitter life. I did many things that I now realize are wrong, and that I have lived out my life in...regret."
Amara bites her lip. Although she didn't like the direction where this was going, she was interested. She listens intently to Pitch, the both of them still walking in the darkness, the quiet yet serene darkness surrounding them.
"But I wasn't always like that. No...for you see, Amara." Pitch stops in his tracks, kneeling down to Amara, and taking her by the shoulders. Amara cocks her head, furrowing her eyebrow, surprised. "These are one of the many things you should know, dear girl, or else you might not go a long way in life with a close minded mind set, so listen closely." Amara straightens her posture, her ear leaning in for what Pitch had to say that sounded so important.
He looks straight into her eyes, with a wisdom that Amara never saw before. "Evil is never born. It's made." Pitch pauses, looking over Amara in the darkness. Her expression was thoughtful. "Sooo...what does that mean?" She asks childishly. Pitch shakes his head, standing back up, though a small smile is on his face.
"Well, I didn't expect you know what I meant. As a child, everything you see in the world is only in two simple shades. Good and evil. Am I right?"
"Right." Amara nods.
"But as you grow up, you learn, experience, and grow that there's so much more shades than that. For you see Amara, evil is simply not born. It is shaped. It is made. It is learned. For when there is a villain, there is a reason to why they became that way."
Amara absorbs all of this in, in wonder and thoughtfulness. "I think I'm starting to understand," she says slowly, nodding her head in leisure, biting her nails with her free hand.
"So what that leads up to Amara, is that, I wasn't always the boogeyman. The bad guy."
"But you're not a bad guy!" The girl exclaims in protest.
Pitch smiles bitterly in the darkness. "Amara, if you only knew the things that I did way back then well...you would not even consider me human. But I won't get into those atrocities." Pitch waves his hand off, in an attempt to forget it. "Back then Amara, I used to have a wife. A daughter. A family. I was a respected man, who had a responsible job. I was...happy."
Amara listens, intrigued. "What was your job?"
The Nightmare King chuckles, his eyes holding nostolgia and sorrow. "A soilder. A general, in fact. I was the famous and honorable general, Kozmotis Pitchiner."
"Weird name."
"Shut it rascal. Anyway, I brought this era called, 'The Golden Age' in the universe, where all planets, stars, and galaxies lived at peace."
Amara chortles, covering her mouth. "Sounds like a hocus pocus fairytale."
"But it isn't," Pitch says firmly. "The universe outside of Earth is a thriving and living place, full of life."
"What, aliens?" Amara half-jokes, who still couldn't stop her smirk and quiet laughing.
"I suppose you can call them that. But they—we, are just as much human as you. As I was saying, there was the Golden Age. Everyone was at peace. The galaxies were safe. There were no dark creatures such as Nightmare Men, Fearlings, or Nightmares,"
Amara briefly shudders at the mention of Nightmares, bad memories coming into mind.
"Since my troops and I put them away. I used to be quite the merciful and honorable person." Pitch gives a bitter sounding laugh. "Oh joy, I can't believe that I was that kind of man...but one day, these Nightmare Men set up a trap. Specifically for me. This trap ultimately led to my wife's and daughter's deaths. Or so I thought."
The girl looks down at where she thinks her feet were. "Oh." She noticed that Pitch's hand is practically squeezing hers. But now its understandable… "What do you mean that you thought?" Amara asks as gently as she could.
Pitch gives a dry laugh. "Well, only my wife died. Oh my poor wife...she gave up her very life so that our dear daughter could live on. These Nightmare Men went directly after what they knew would hurt me—my family."
"What d*cks."
The bringer of nightmares laughs heartily at this. When he stops he says, "Well said. However, my daughter had a wild and rebellious heart—the part in which I loved so much about her. She took her boat out to ride in space without my wife knowing—"
"How could she ride a boat in space?" Amara interrupts.
Pitch glares at her, Amara turning red at the heat of his look of daggers. "Erm, I said nothing...IGNORE ME."
"So when they attacked, only my wife was present. Because of that, she jumped out of the window to her death, pretending that both she and our daughter died together. They had no idea, as much as I, that Emily Jane was never there."
"Emily Jane was your daughter's name?" Amara asks lightly, feeling the sadness and anger of Pitch. "Yes." She hears him mumble. "She sounds absolutely badass and I would've love to be her friend," says Amara as comforting she could muster. A real chuckle comes from Pitch. "Thank you, Amara." He says, squeezing her hand softly.
"Unfortunately, though my daughter survived, I didn't know. It drove me to my lowest point...where I started losing myself. I had a vengeance against the Nightmare Men and Nightmares. I started killing them, which was against my honor back then. But then again, it no longer mattered to me. They hurt me so much...in so many ways. In vengeance, I hunted them across all galaxies, locking them all up in which they could never escape.
"I volunteered to watch them for the end of my days. I had nothing left to live for, is what I thought. Any other man that had to watch them would've been driven into insanity—for their whisperings and temptations is what drives into your innermost fears. I managed to brace through it, the consoling thought of Emily Jane and my wife in mind. Their deaths." Pitch pauses, taking a breath.
"One day, they found out my weakness. They imitated Emily Jane's voice inside their prison, tricking me. Like the fool I was, I opened it. When I think about it, all that mattered to me—no, Kozmotis Pitchiner, the former man of myself, is a desperate father concerned for his daughter." Pitch hesitates in what to say next.
"W-what happened?" Amara says, in anticipation at the tale of Pitch's past, nibbling the edge of her nail.
"They possessed me," He finally says. "All of them—ten thousand's worth of those shadow demons."
"Holy sh*t man...you had it bad…" Amara whispers, flinching at this part of the story. She looks up to where she could make out Pitch in the darkness. "What happened to you then…?"
"What do you think. Kozmotis Pitchiner became me. Pitch Black." There was a scorn in his voice that Amara never heard before. "Twisted by the very things that I believed to kill Emily Jane, but murdered my wife, I let them manipulate me. I blamed the Lunar Constellations—"
"Who are they?"
"Another story. I blamed them, I blamed the galaxies, I hungered for the fear of children. I was so brutal back then Amara, you don't know how…"
Amara chews her lip, thinking of what Pitch told her. "...So what happened to Emily Jane? During all of this?"
"I don't exactly know," Pitch answers hollowly. "She wouldn't exactly tell me. She drifted through space, all alone, my poor girl. But she had to grow. All alone. Without me." A pained cry is strangled in Pitch's throat, suddenly. Amara had no idea what to say to this. It was...really serious. Is this what her father had to go through when May died?
The loss of her future? The grades she could have went through? Her now missing graduations? Wedding? Children? Things that could or would never happen...a dead future is what it is. Her father had to miss out on all of that, a father that looked forward to see these things happen to their child. It was absolutely horrible when Amara realized the pain of both her father and Pitch's. She slowly put her hand on Pitch's shoulder, tip-toeing since he is so tall.
He regains composure, gently brushing Amara off. "Emily Jane...grew up," he repeats, taking a deep breath. "She became a powerful, confident, and independent woman. She became that being as you hear today, Mother Nature."
Amara makes no comment on this. She really isn't sure on what to think of this magic incorporated into Pitch's past—but his pain was real. Besides, on what Amara actually believed...that weird silver haired boy, the spiky haired golden Sandy...what logical explanation is there around them? Nothing, is what she could think of…
"So...if you guys are both spirits or whatever, why didn't the two of you become family again?" Amara asks, perplexed.
Pitch laughs dryly. "Like I said, she's completely neutral. I had no idea she was alive and that she grew up, through an event that occurred a thousand years ago…"
"Daaaaammmmnnnnnnn, you're old!"
"Shut it."
"Gee."
"That was the first and last time we would ever talk or meet each other again...she truly moved on. She had no interest in us becoming father and daughter again. She holds so much resentment...she is so hurt...that, how could I possibly expected for us to be together again? Though I did hope for that so much when I found out she was alive…" Pitch looks over to Amara.
"The funny thing is, we met under the circumstances of a certain, pestering, yet interesting human girl that was just like you, close to your age." Memory clouds Pitch's eyes. "She was a lost child, yet she was a strong one. Something that I admired." He shakes his head, going back to the subject.
"That's it."
Amara's head snaps up. "Wha? That's it? 'The End?' No happy ending?" She says in disbelief.
Pitch gives a cold, hard smile. "Amara, as you know, happy endings don't exist in both of our realities."
"True...but….Emily Jane, Mother Nature, whatever, that's just the end? She never spoke to you again?"
"No." Pitch shrugs, as if he didn't care. Truth be told, just re-telling his past brought back so much painful memories…
"But you guys are a family! Father and daughter!" Amara declares, her voice becoming louder.
"She wasn't quite eager to fulfill that position again."
"..." A grave silence takes up their conversation. "It's not fair." Amara mutters under her breath. Pitch glances over to her, amused. "Well, you should know better."
"I know what unfairness is...I just didn't expect it to happen to so many other people…"
Pitch had no answer for that. His eyes trail away from Amara, then he sees a faint light ahead. "There!" He exclaims.
A/N: Yeah, a take on Pitch's past. I made it even more possibly gut wrenching. Ohhh…DX