"No. You will not harm the girl." Pitch's voice came out in rasped pants, his luminous gaze burning in the darkness.
The Reaper slowly turned to face him, and Elsa wasted no time. She scrambled to her feet, putting the couch between herself and the demon of death. There was no way she would be able to make it out of the open door...she'd surely be struck down before she made it close. Raising her hands, she centered herself for whatever attack might follow...but it appeared that at least for now, she'd been forgotten.
"Killing her now will only hurt our cause. They'll be coming now. Don't you see? If you're going to destroy her...do it front of them. Then take advantage of their moment of grief. It's brilliant...and you know it." Pitch continued, trying to reason with the demon with grisly details.
The Reaper stood before him, dwarfing him with his own lanky mass. Elsa could no longer see Pitch, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. Surely whatever the Reaper was about to inflict on him would not be pretty...
There was movement in the darkness and Pitch was sent skidding across the cobblestone floor. The scythe fell from the air as the shadows disappeared, but the demon of Death caught it easily. He did not turn as he left the room, his shroud billowing around him.
Elsa breathed a sigh of relief, resisting the urge to sink to the floor. Her knees felt weak as her adrenaline began to leave her, as her stomach rolled...likely an after effect of the fear in combination with whatever vile mist the Reaper had conjured. A groan from the floor reminded her that she was not alone, however, and Elsa took a tentative step forward.
Pitch had pushed himself to a sitting position, and Elsa saw that he was bleeding heavily from the mouth, adding to his natural unnerving appearance. He reached up, smearing the blood with the back of his hand...then spat a mouthful of it on the rock floor at his side.
Elsa reached to the hem of her skirt, tearing free a length of cloth. She slowly approached him, gauging his reaction with every step. The last thing she needed was for him to lash out at her. But Pitch remained still, regarding her steadily with those eerie yellow eyes.
"Here...let me..." Elsa said gently, kneeling as she reached out to dab at his lip.
His long fingers closed around her wrist with shocking speed. "Don't." His voice was low, but lethal enough to make her drop the rag without a word. Pitch released her and picked it up, pressing it to his mouth as Elsa out distance between them. Pitch rose unsteadily to his feet, straightening his robe with his free hand as he did so. Even so, he looked disheveled.
"Why did you protect me? Surely he's a danger, even to you." Elsa said finally, regarding Pitch with faint curiosity.
"It wasn't you I was protecting, Snow Queen. I've got interests of my own vested in this little scheme, you know." He continued to dab the cloth at the split in his lip, peering at the blood that bloomed in the fabric with apparent disdain.
"I'm quite sure you do. But I don't believe death falls into your plan. And that could have very well been the outcome." Perhaps it wasn't wise to challenge him, but Pitch did not seem scary to her in that moment. In fact, he seemed nearly as vulnerable as she in contrast to the overwhelming evil of the Reaper.
"It was a risk I was perfectly willing to take for my partner to see the brilliance of my plan." Pitch answered nonchalantly. "What I said was true. It's better that you are alive until the battle."
Elsa believed that he was speaking the truth...partially. Yet there was something more to his reasonings...she was sure of it. Regardless, she did not press the issue, deciding instead on another angle. "But you've mentioned you want me alive beyond that. That you want me at your side. But you know the Reaper won't have that. He wants my soul."
He shrugged as if it made little difference. "It would be ideal to keep you as a partner, yes. If you should fall through the cracks and the Reaper gets what he wants...I'll be sorry for it. It will be a significant waste. But I don't think that will happen." He smiled, folding the blood soaked cloth neatly. "I do believe your friends will put a stop to him long before he has the chance to kill you. That's the chance I'm waiting for."
"You're using him too." Elsa said softy, finally understanding his strategy. By using the Guardians to take away the Reaper, Pitch would he offering himself the chance to rise to power. They'd be weakened, surely...and that would be all he needed to gain what he'd always wanted...to be believed in.
"Of course I am. What did you think?
That I actually enjoyed his company? Please." Pitch said, rolling his eyes dramatically.
Elsa regarded him silently for a long moment. She no longer feared him...no, those feelings had gradually faded into contempt the more time she had spent in his presence. But as she watched him in the pale yellow light, the blood crusting in the divot of his split lip...Elsa was aware that she felt a nudge of something else.
Pity.
It was a bare hint of emotion, but it was there. Not the kind that made her feel the need to go to him, to console or comfort him...it was the kind of pity one feels for a fool who refuses to help himself. All of the time he'd spent alone and bitter, so desperate for power that he had befriended the very god of Death himself...how sad. How absolutely sad, when surely he'd had another choice. He must have, for Manny would surely have never forced such sufferance on another.
"Who were you before this, Pitch?" Elsa asked softly. "Before you descended into the darkness? What life did you have?"
"This has always been my life." He responded sharply...a lie Elsa saw through with ease.
"I don't think that's true. In fact, I know it's not." She pointed to the book that had fallen to the floor, looking at him with curious eyes. "Did you write the message in the cover of that book? Before?" She could feel his tension from across the room, but still, she persisted. "It was you, wasn't it? You wrote that message for your daughter."
"Stop it." He growled, almost too lowly for her to hear.
"What happened to her, Pitch? What happened to you? Where did you go? Why couldn't you be with her?" She pressed, knowing that if she didn't crack through his hardened shell in that moment, she never would.
"Silence!" He roared, whirling toward her with blazing eyes. "None of it is your concern...not another word, or so help me, I will finish what the Reaper started with you!"
Startled, Elsa stumbled back a step...but she was not phased by his outburst. She come too far to back down now. "No, you won't." She said, her voice flat and matter-of-fact. "Your plan makes too much sense...it's too important to you. But it goes deeper than that, doesn't it? You won't kill me because I remind you of her, don't I? I remind you of your daughter."
She expected another outburst from him...had in fact readied herself for his explosive anger. What she did not expect, however, was his dry and humorless laughter. "Oh, you think you've gotten it all figured out, do you?" His lunar gaze shifted from silver to a startling shade of gold, narrowed viciously at her. "You're wrong. It's not my daughter that you remind me of. No...she favored her Papa in terms of looks. Her mother, on the other hand...she was fair, with white gold hair and the bluest eyes you've ever seen." He laughed again, this time at the stricken expression on Elsa's face. "It's true, Snow Queen. You don't resemble my daughter. You resemble my wife."
Elsa was shocked, but she quickly hid it from her features. If she was going to learn about the Nightmare King...to find a weakness, any weakness...she needed to keep pressing. "Did you kill her, Pitch? Your wife?"
"Never!" He spat harshly, beginning to pace. His lip had reopened, and Elsa could see a fine trickle of blood dribbling across his angular chin. "My family was my world. I would have done anything to protect them. But while I was busy protecting our homeland, I couldn't be there to save them from the thieving rouges that broke into our residence. Their deaths were senseless and cruel...and I've never forgiven whatever gods may be for allowing it. In fact, when I entered that house and saw what had been done to the two people dearest to me...that is when I vowed my eternal revenge."
Elsa felt sick to her stomach at horror of his tale, and though she did not want to learn more...she knew she must. "What did you do?"
"I used my blade across each wrist of course. I was out of my mind with grief...I believed the only way to exact revenge on God himself was through death. Only, The Man in the Moon intervened. He didn't let Death harvest me...no, he condemned me to this. To the shadows, to the fear. And I have never forgiven him."
"Manny would never have condemned you..." Elsa protested.
"He might as well have! I couldn't be be a Guardian. I carried too much darkness, too much of a thirst for revenge. He wanted me to let those things go...but how could I? When the monsters that took my family still roamed free and alive and whole? So I denied his offer...and for that, I was cast out." Pitch ran his fingers over the old and worn binding of his book, a crazed smile dancing on his lips. "But it was worth it. All these years in the shadows has been worth it. Because I did find the rouges that killed my beloveds. And their agonized screams will echo in my heart forever...and that, Snow Queen, is invaluable."
Elsa finally understood the empty creature of darkness. She did not condone the choices he'd made...and as long as he was a threat to Jack, he would forever be her enemy. But for the first time, she could see why he'd made the choices he'd made. Loss had a way of changing people...and that was something she understood more than anything.
She bravely took a step forward, regarding him solemnly. "I'm sorry for what you had to go through...I'm sorry that you lost your family. I really am. But it doesn't have to be this way, Pitch." Elsa said softly. "You've been alone a long time. But that doesn't mean you have to be."
His eerie, glowing gaze regarded her with skepticism. "What exactly are you implying, Snow Queen?"
"That it's not too late. You don't have to be lost in the shadows. You have great power...There is so much good you could do for this world, if you just changed your mind!" Elsa held his gaze, desperately trying to get him to understand. "Everyone can be forgiven, if they just ask for it."
Pitch raised a brow, the left edge of his lips quirking into a lopsided smirk. "Are you suggesting I join forces with the Guardians?" He asked, disbelief dripping from every word.
Elsa nodded. "What have you got to lose? You've gotten revenge on the men that killed your wife and your little girl. All that's driven you since then is the desire to have people believe in you...and Manny can give you that! I'm sure his offer would still be valid if you would only ask..."
"And I thought you were a smart girl." Pitch cut in, his voice heavy with anger. "I killed the mortals, yes...but enemies still exist in the form the gods that allowed it to happen. I will never align with them. An eternity in the shadows is a far better fate than standing at the side of the Man in the Moon...the one who betrayed me most."
"Manny didn't betray you. He wouldn't have wanted that for your family. The only one who benefitted from those deaths...Pitch, the Reaper is the only one who benefitted your family dying! Haven't you thought that maybe he orchestrated it from the beginning? That maybe his plan to partner with you one day was set in motion, even all those years ago?"
Elsa had made an error in assuming that just because she was valuable to Pitch's plan, that he would not harm her. His lips peeled back, revealing his jagged teeth as a low snarl escaped him. His palm connected with her cheek on the next instant, the stinging slap delivered with such force that it caused to to stumble to the floor with a surprised cry. Her eye instantly began to water, and Elsa placed her had against her skin to try to quiet the singing pain.
"You have a very active mouth, Snow Queen." Pitch said darkly as he stood over her. "I'd consider giving it a rest before I decide to put it to work."
He suggestive threat caused her eyes to narrow. "You wouldn't dare."
He smiled at her cruelly, reaching down to stroke his long fingers across her braid. Elsa's stomach turned as she wrenched way from his touch. "I very much would. Now...behave yourself. I've got final preparations to attend to before battle."
"They'll beat you. You don't stand a chance." She said, curling herself against the wall as she glared at him with unabashed hatred.
"Then they'll beat you too, dear Queen. Remember...you'll fight...or your sister is as good as dead." Pitch promised, and without anger word, exited the room. The heavy iron door slammed behind him, and Elsa could hear the clang as it locked from the outside.
Elsa remained against the wall, pulling her knees up as she hugged her arms around herself. Isolation had never bothered her...but in the cold cavern of her current prison, Elsa had never felt so alone.
But she would not cry.
No, tears were very far away as the Queen of Arendelle sat alone on ye old cobblestone floor. Pitch had taken her from her sister, had torn her away from Jack and the Guardians...but she would not allow him to take her strength, too. And though she felt fear, she pushed it down deep inside of her...for she would rather die than give him the satisfaction of feeling that fear.
"Conceal...don't feel..." She whispered to herself, over and over again for the minutes that followed.
She thought then of Jack...of the way the wind would ruffle his silver hair into fashionable disarray, and the way his blue eyes would dance with excitement whenever there was a promise of fun. Though he was not alive, Jack was more full of life than anyone shed ever known. It was a quality she loved fiercely about him. She thought of his lips, and the way they created magic on her skin. She remembered his tenderness, and the gentle assurance she felt whenever he told her that he loved her.
No matter what fate had in store for her, Elsa knew she was a lucky woman. To be loved so thoroughly, so deeply and so unconditionally. Their time together as a couple had been short...but she held every moment dear and close. And she always would.
Oh, she missed him so.
"Manny," Elsa whispered to the empty room. "I'm...I'm not sure if you can hear me, down here in this place. I'm not sure if you even listen to mortals like me...but I hope you do. I hope you'll hear me...because I need your help. I...I don't have anyone else to turn to, and the Guardians trust you so much..." Elsa paused, drawing a deep and shuddering breath. "Manny, please tell Jack I'm sorry for what I've done. Please help him to understand that I had to do this. That my decision was deeper than me and him...deeper than anything I've ever done. Help him see that this was the only way I could amend the past, to make it up to Anna. But also...if you could just let him know that I love him. That I've always loved him...and that I always will. And promise him that I'll find my way back to him somehow...that I'll always be at his side. Can you just tell him that, Manny? I think...I think he needs to know, okay?" Elsa rested her head back against the wall and closed her eyes, trying to find peace in the storm of her heart. "Thank you..." She breathed softly, giving herself completely to faith. Manny would tell Jack. Somehow, someway. She knew it.
