As Cold as Ice

Ever since Pitch told her about Jackson's death, she prayed every day that it would not happen. Every day, when she woke up, she prayed at the church and then again when she left work. At night, she would pray and beg God to spare her baby.

At first, she thought it worked. Nothing had happened yet. Why didn't she listen to the odd feeling she had the day before? She should have known. It was a sign of something to come. But she pushed it aside as nothing.

Susanna fell to her knees and cried for her baby boy. He was so young. He hadn't lived his life, outside of his father's shadows. Susanna felt numb as she gave into the despair that she was feeling. Everything felt empty and painful. She didn't want that feeling.

Susanna felt like she was floating in a pool of nothingness. She could not hear the screams or words that came out of Pitch's or Flee's mouth. She could not hear the whines of the Nightmare Horses. She couldn't hear anything, except the painful beating of her heart as it beat in tone with her broken heart.

Susanna stared at her baby boy as he got weaker and weaker. He was drowning and there was nothing she could do to ease his pain. She mentally scoffed at herself. Some mother she was.

Susanna didn't think as she wrapped her arms around her baby girl; her only living child. Her body trembled with her daughter as the pain engulfed her senses, silences the noises around her like a cotton ball. She would not let her go. Her baby would not die too. Susanna closed her eyes as Flee started to calm down.

She didn't move when Flee moved away from her. She didn't move when Jackson started to stop moving. She didn't move when Pitch started screaming for Jackson as he completely lost it.

Susanna could not bear his pain.

He looked broken, shattered. That was not the man she came to love. She fell in love with the kind, proud soul that fought for what he wanted. He didn't give up. He didn't let his feelings get in the way of protecting them.

But Jackson was gone.

And Susanna suddenly felt scared.

Susanna looked at Pitch when he began to wail for his brother. Tears fell faster as her slow mind processed his broken words.

"Jackson! Don't go!"

"Don't leave me! Please, come back!"

Why? Why did this have to happen?

"We just found each other! We were going to be a family again!"

A family? Yes, we are family. We were all supposed to live together. You were supposed to help prepare our wedding that you teased us about.

"LITTLE BROTHER!"

The tears fell. The pain. Oh, the pain.

Susanna felt like her own heart shatter along with Pitch's.

She felt his pain.

She felt his sadness.

She felt his misery, loneliness, and despair.

And yet, at the same time, she felt her world turned upside down as her daughter screamed at the Guardians. Susanna felt as if the scene was in slow motions as she turned to face the beings that were supposed to protect her children. Flee was angry, to put it mildly. The Guardians. The Guardians. These were the Guardians? These cold, uncaring beings. These beings who completely destroyed her family.

Susanna felt her heart, one that held so much warmth and understanding, turned to anger and hatred.

The words seemed to echo in her head as they argued.

"The ratbag doesn't know anything about caring for kids. He's nothing but a monster, a murderer."

"The only monster here I see is you!"

Susanna closed her eyes and held her head in her hands as the tears fell. A monster? Pitch is no monster.

"You blamed him for what the Fearlings did! You raged war against him and killed the last of his people that were here!"

"You are so stupid for thinking that you can destroy fear! Fear is needed for the balance!"

Idiots! Everyone is afraid of something. Why do they believe they need to destroy fear?

"By destroying fear, you are destroying the natural balance of nature!"

"What would you know, Ankle-Bitter? You don't know Pitch as well as we do! He's nothing but a monster!"

Susanna's eyes snapped open in shock as she stared at the Guardian. She couldn't believe he said that. They had been with Pitch for months. He was a kind and gentle soul. One that cared deeply for his younger brother. Pitch had been taking care of them for months now. He was no monster. He was a gentleman.

"You, no go for nothing Kangaroo! You are no Guardian!"

Susanna soon felt her anger starting to fill her senses. She wanted to yell at those Guardians. She wanted to show them just how it felt to feel this pain.

"YOU DESTROYED MY FAMILY!"

She would make them suffer.

She would make them pay.

Susanna glared at the Guardians and noticed with a slight satisfaction when Flee walked right through the female Guardian. The woman gasped and her hand went straight for her chest.

She doesn't believe, she realized with a smile. The Guardian looked on with wide, horrified eyes, but Susanna soon found it unsatisfying. The Guardians needed to suffer more, more than being walked through and not being believed in by one child.

But as Susanna came to that line of thought, she saw something truly frightening.

Shadow creatures.

And red eyes.

Susanna shook her head and push her dark thoughts away and finally heard everything that was happening around her.

Pitch's screams.

Susanna paled as she heard his screams. His screams were broken, shattered, void of any emotions and warmth; he sounded dead. But what made her heart stop for a moment was the thousands of voices that echoed one word over and over again.

"NO!"

Susanna gasped as she turned towards Pitch and saw a frightening sight. Pitch was engulfed in a black aura. Shadow creatures came out of the very shadows that were formed from the trees and plants, anything that cast a shadow. They were fearsome as they attacked the Guardians. The Guardians, coward and retreated from the shadow creatures. They fought the shadows every so often, but they soon realized they were no match. Every time one shadow turned to smoke and returned to Pitch, another one would take its place to attack the Guardians.

However, Susanna ignored all of that. She kept her gaze on Pitch. He was no longer himself. He seemed to be Pitch and many, many others.

The Fearlings. Oh, god!

Fear filled her as she recalled Pitch telling her about how he came to be the Nightmare King. The Fearlings tricked him. They took over his soul and body. They changed him. And when they did…he lost control.

"Pitch! Pitch!" A sudden panic and fear filled her. She just lost Jackson; she could not lose Pitch too. Susanna ran to Pitch, noticing his black soulless eyes. It frightened her to see no emotion in this eyes. Her throat dried as she fought against the need to flee for her life as the shadows became more violent; to escape from this madness.

Maybe if it was another time.

Maybe if she never got to know the real Pitch Black, then she would have left him alone to deal with his problem.

But she could not do that.

She had gotten to now this man, this lovable, sweet, sweet man.

She refused to abandon him because…

She loved him.

It was that love that drove her to be so reckless.

Susanna ran to her love. She ran and didn't turn back. She didn't turn to the Guardians who were screaming and panicking as they retreated. She didn't glance at Flee or the Nightmares as she yelled, "NIGHT, ONYX! GET HER OUT OF HERE!"

Her heart pounded within her chest as she stared at Pitch fearfully. His screams made her own heart ache with pain. She didn't stop the few of tears as she hugged him from behind, "STOP, PITCH! STOP!"

Her body trembled and shock as the dark aura tried to push her away. Tried to push her to a safer distance. But she held tighter and tighter. "NO! I WON'T LET GO! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" She felt Pitch stiffened slightly. "I KNOW IT HURTs!" she cried, her face buried in his back. "IT HURTS SO MUCH! BUT YOU HAVE TO COME BACK! YOU HAVE TO!"

The shadows screeched as they attacked aimlessly.

"W-why?" Susanna pulled back a little as she heard the question. It sounded like she was getting through to him. It was faint, but it was still there.

"Because…" she whispered as she pressed herself to him again.

"I can't lose you." she swallowed, feeling Pitch's body shuddered. The loud screeches of the shadow creatures started to fade.

"I would not be able to stand it."

Pitch's let out a small sob as his body continued to shudder violently. Pitch's voice sounded a lot more emotional and not as dead as he was before.

"I already lost Jackson…"

Her voice sounded so small as she spoke, but she knew he heard her.

"I can't lose you too."

She felt Pitch place a hand on hers.

"I love you."

As they left her lips, those three words seemed to trigger something in Pitch. Pitch let out a sorrowful cry as he fell to the ground, taking her along with him. Susanna remained quiet and allowed Pitch to pull her into an embrace. Pitch continued to cry his grief; she buried her face into his chest and cry with him.

They held each other, crying their grief as sobs racked their bodies. Tears of sadness left their eyes as the pain of losing Jackson crushed their souls.

The pain left a hole in its wake.

And with a whole that big, hatred crept in to fill it.

And with hatred there was vengeance.

And vengeance they would have, no matter how long it takes.