Author's Note: Sorry, I would have come out with this on Friday but I had some trouble writing this chapter. I hope you guys like where the plot is going and that it isn't too predictable. We'll eventually get on with the time traveling part, but I am having too much fun in 1974 right now.
Reviews:
Fenghuang0296: Sandy has a lot of development in the books, I believe. I'll touch more on him once I've actually read that far in them. Sandy is very, very old. Actually, they all are. The book plots take place a long time before the movie. I'm having fun including things from the books/internet/movie and kinda meshing them all together. I won't forget about Sandy, I promise. As for future flashback arcs, maybe I'll save that for when I'm finished with the current flashback interludes. Don't want too many flashbacks at once. :)
Crossover Junkie: Is Pitch being badass enough for you? :P Thanks for the dialogue help by the way. You helped me realize I had a plothole going on since I forgot that Pitch should be suspicious on why Jamie knows all about the Nightmares. I actually wound up rewriting the section that I used your dialogue in. In the first version of that scene, I had it very vague since I thought it would be more dramatic that way but then I wanted to include some of your dialogue so it inspired me to expand that scene and make it more descriptive. So thanks!
Guest: I responded to you in a guest review of my own, since at the time I wasn't finished writing this chapter and wanted to respond right away. I managed to repost the chapter that had gotten messed up. I'm not sure how it got swapped like that since it was still correctly labeled but had the wrong text. Fanfiction was being weird, I suppose. Anyway, as I said in my review if you see any more swapped chapters, please let me know!
Chapter Sixty-Eight: Jamie's Adventure: Pitched in Darkness
Current time: 1974
Pitch reached out a hand to touch the Nightmare as it approached him. He paused, however, when he heard a whimper coming from the girl on the bed. He looked over at her and could see that she was crying in her sleep. She also seemed to be waking up.
A look of uncertainty crossed over his face. This was the child he had looked out for all those years. He didn't want to cause her any -
The Nightmare stamped its hoof and snorted, causing Pitch to jerk his attention back to it. It looked Pitch in the eye and Pitch's expression cleared. He stroked the Nightmare's mane and saw a flash of an image - a man with dark hair and eyes, and a cruel expression on his face - and then the image was gone.
Pitch frowned at that. He was pretty sure he knew precisely who that was and that man should not be meddling with Nightmares.
"Are there more of you?" Pitch questioned the Nightmare softly.
The Nightmare tossed its head and gave an affirmative snort. Of course, there were more of them. Much more.
Pitch couldn't help but smirk at that.
"Take me to them," he commanded the Nightmare. "We have much to do."
The Nightmare led Pitch outside where Pitch mounted it and then it galloped away and in a flash, they were gone.
Not long after they left, Lillian woke up to feel tears on her cheeks. She sat up with a sniffle and looked around. Her room looked so dark and the furniture made scary shapes. She pulled her knees up to her chest as she thought about the awful dream she had.
In it, the Easter Bunny and Jack Frost had been yelling at her, much the same as her father did. They were calling her names and Jack had even thrown a snowball right in her face. It had all seemed so real.
More tears fell as she remembered how the Easter Bunny had yelled earlier that day. It didn't seem too farfetched that he would yell at her too. Maybe he didn't mean it when he said he'd make her special eggs for next year. Maybe Jack Frost didn't really like her either.
As Lillian's shoulders shook as she buried her face in her knees, her light on the globe, which had once shone so brightly started to become dim.
Pitch soon found himself in a clearing where dozens of Nightmares had gathered. He had dismounted from the one that had taken him there and he walked among them, his expression quite confused. He had no idea where they had all come from.
Of course, the Nightmares were the reason that he became Pitch Black in the first place, and a very, very long time ago he had used them against those blasted Guardians and their friends. However, the Nightmares had long since ceased to exist* and Pitch had gone from trying to defeat the Guardians, to concentrating more on spreading nightmares. Even he realized that the balance had to remain. Everyone needed a touch of fear, and he continued to do so.. Not to quell the children's belief, but because they needed their nightmares to grow.
Pitch had yet to figure out how to recreate the Nightmares that had once been his allies against the Guardians, but he had grown distracted from that over the years. Now as he looked at the Nightmares before him, a cruel smirk formed on his face.
It had been a long time since he had felt the urge to plot. As he ordered the Nightmares to go around and spread their fear, his mind couldn't help but wander to the boy who was asleep in his lair. He could tell that the boy's belief was very strong.
Maybe he could find a way to use that against the Guardians.
The next day, the Guardians were all frantic. The aurora had turned on very early in the morning and all the Guardians had assembled as soon as they could.
"Is terrible!" North declared as he gestured at the globe. "The lights are all going dim around Burgess!"
Tooth gasped as she saw all the dim lights radiating out from Burgess.
"Oh no!" she said as she stared at it. "What could have happened? We just had Easter!"
Golden images appeared over Sandy's head to tell them that he hadn't noticed anything unusual when he was at Burgess at the beginning of the night. Something must have happened after he left.
Bunny didn't say anything as he was frantically scanning Burgess for two very important lights. He saw one shining brightly, but the other..
"No!" Bunny gasped when he saw the light of one of his oldest believers.
It had gone so dim! Just like all the others!
"Bunny?" North asked as he placed a hand on Bunny's shoulder.
Bunny's shoulders slumped, but then he straightened back up.
"I gotta get ta Burgess and find out what happened," he told the others.
"What if it's a trap?" Tooth asked frantically as her wings whirled a mile a minute.
North nodded in agreement.
"I have a feeling in my belly," he declared.
Sandy made a golden image of Pitch over his head and Bunny scoffed at that.
"No one's seen Pitch Black since the dark ages!" he said to Sandy.
In response, Sandy gestured to all the dim lights on the globe. This sure looked like Pitch's handiwork.
"I'll let ya know what I find out when I get back from checkin' on Lillian," Bunny said as he tapped his foot on the ground and jumped down into his tunnel.
Sandy looked at the spring flower that appeared once the tunnel closed up with an apprehensive expression on his face.
After searching around frantically, Bunny finally found Lillian walking on her way to school. He raced over to her, startling her in the process.
"Lillian!" he exclaimed as he took a hold of her shoulders to face her towards him.
He noticed that she looked very tired and sad before she flinched and drew away from him. She looked up at Bunny with an expression he never expected to see on a child looking at him. She looked a little afraid.
"What happened? What's wrong?" he demanded.
Lillian looked down at her feet as Bunny was practically yelling at her. This was starting to turn out a lot like the dream she had.
"I'll be late for school," she said softly to him.
"Wait!" Bunny exclaimed, but Lillian hurried away from him.
Bunny growled in frustration and then went around to other kids, but they all reacted the same as Lillian. Instead of joy at seeing the Easter Bunny, they got scared looks on their faces and hurried away from him.
One kid had declared him a meanie and even kicked him in the knee! Bunny grumbled to himself as he limped a bit while rubbing his poor knee. What had gotten into the little anklebiters? If only he knew where Jamie was staying, then he could check on him too.
Jamie had woken up to the smell of breakfast cooking and it smelled wonderful. So wonderful in fact, that he almost didn't notice that he was wearing that nightgown again. He pouted as he did notice though and then quickly went about changing back into his clothes. He noticed that he had a new set to wear today, and as promised, there were some boy pajamas on the shelves too.
Jamie wondered where Pitch had gotten these clothes, as they looked just like the ones you'd buy at the store. He left his room and noticed that there was a little more light around now. Pitch had thoughtfully set up some oil lamps so Jamie wouldn't stumble into anything in the dark. After a bit of trial and error, Jamie soon found his way to the kitchen and sat down at the table.
Soon he had a mug of tea with a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon before him. He noticed Pitch had made himself some oatmeal with tea. Jamie was a little amused that Pitch seemed so obsessed with tea, but he didn't mind. He supposed there were worse things to drink.
Pitch was a little quiet as they ate, and Jamie regarded him thoughtfully. Then Jamie mentally shrugged. Maybe Pitch wasn't much of a morning person? He was the Boogeyman, after all.
"So I found some stuff out, and I kinda think I know what I have to do," Jamie said as he started to eat his breakfast.
"Oh?" Pitch said as he raised a non-existent eyebrow. "What might that be?"
Jamie looked over at Pitch. He could tell Pitch was really interested and it made him pause. Should he trust Pitch with this? Pitch had been so nice to him lately, and he didn't steal his hourglasses at all. Making up his mind, Jamie continued to talk.
"Well, you know that Lillian's the Child of Spring in my time. I guess when she was a kid, she almost went into a forest looking for Easter eggs, but then she heard something and changed her mind. I think she has to go into the forest. So all I have to do is figure out how to stop Gethen without going into the forest."
Pitch froze in mid-bite of his oatmeal.
Gethen.
He recalled the brief image he'd gotten from the Nightmare and his fist clenched around his spoon. His face darkened a little before he adopted a more calm expression and resumed eating.
Jamie had observed all this with interest.
"Do you know him?" he asked Pitch.
"We've.. become acquainted," Pitch answered evasively. "Why must you not go into this forest?"
Jamie's expression turned troubled as he pushed his eggs around on his plate.
"It's sort of hard to explain, but I gave Lillian a message to give to myself in this time. She told me that no matter what, I shouldn't go into the forest. She also said I told her 'don't let it break.' I think Gethen does something really bad, and I was trying to prevent it from happening."
"Interesting," Pitch replied as he took a long drink of his tea. He eyed the boy across from him who still looked very troubled. He had so many fears at the moment and Pitch was hard pressed to hide a smirk. "What will you do now?"
"I don't know," Jamie said, sounding quite young. "I suppose I should go to 1968, but I don't want to mess it up."
"I think I have an idea," Pitch said slowly as if just thinking of something.
"You do?" Jamie asked, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.
Pitch nodded.
"I have something that could help you, but it will have to wait until tonight."
"Why tonight?" Jamie asked.
"I'm very tired and I need to rest now," Pitch said as he tried to keep his voice neutral. Best not to give anything away too soon.
"Oh," Jamie said as he sounded a little disappointed. What was he supposed to do for the whole day while Pitch was sleeping?
"Don't worry," Pitch said calmly. "It will be dark before you know it."
Bunny had returned back to the North Pole with the disturbing news that it seemed like all the believers were afraid of him. The Guardians all exchanged looks at that. This had never happened to them before.
"Even Lillian was afraid of me," Bunny said dejectedly. "She practically ran away from me."
Sandy patted Bunny on the arm and a few golden images appeared over his head.
"You'll make her have good dreams of me?" Bunny asked as he saw the golden images.
Sandy nodded and gave Bunny a thumbs up.
Bunny couldn't help but feel a little hopeful at that. Would a few good dreams really make everything alright?
Lillian soon found herself back in her room, once again in her nightgown. She was sitting up in bed and had her knees pulled up to her chest. Her light was off after she had begged her father to leave it on, and now the lightbulb was removed.
She stared with wide eyes over at the window. The moon was blocked out by clouds, making the night seem even darker and more sinister.
She stifled a gasp as she thought she saw a shadow dart past the window. She heard a loud noise from somewhere and threw the covers over her head.
Sandy found her not long after that. He had easily opened her window and floated inside, to see a shivering lump on the bed that he assumed was Lillian. He noted how afraid she was and couldn't help but think that this sounded exactly like Pitch Black.
He walked over to her bed and gently pulled the covers back. Lillian whimpered in fear and had her eyes shut very tightly, as though if she couldn't see whatever it was that was in her room, it couldn't see her. Sandy sat down on the edge of her bed and gently patted her on the arm until she finally opened her eyes.
Her curls were a little wild from being under the covers and her eyes widened in fear when she saw who it was. She backed away from Sandy and pressed herself against the headboard.
"Don't give me bad dreams!" she said a little shrilly. "The Easter Bunny said you would!"
Sandy blinked at that and cocked his head. That didn't sound like something that Bunny would say at all. Sandy had been about ready to make a ball of dreamsand to send her off to sleep, but now he knew that it would make her more afraid.
As Sandy looked at her in confusion, he saw something that made him frown. He gently reached out and held her chin, running a thumb gently over the bruise he saw on her face. A golden question mark appeared over his head, clearly asking her how she got it.
Lillian flinched and jerked away from him, nearly falling out of bed in the process.
"L-Leave me alone!" she said, as she did get out of bed and back away from him. She moved toward the window and Sandy's eyes widened when he saw a shadow loom up behind her.
He pointed frantically at the window, but Lillian didn't understand. She was about to say something to Sandy when she was suddenly grabbed from behind.
Sandy stared in despair as Lillian was swept out of the room with a shriek of terror. But soon that look was replaced with determination.
He would get her back.
Jamie followed Pitch to the edge of town once Pitch had gotten up for the night. He didn't want to admit it, but everything looked pretty creepy in the dark. Pitch smirked as he lead Jamie far away from houses and from anyone that could help him. The foolish boy thought he actually had a plan to help him out!
Jamie glanced back again as he followed after Pitch. He thought he heard something, but he didn't see anything behind them.
"Where are we going anyway?" he asked Pitch as they walked further away from town.
"Don't worry, we're almost there," Pitch replied as he spotted a particularly dark spot up ahead.
"What's that?" Jamie asked as he saw the dark spot as well.
There was a terrifying whinny and soon dark shadows were racing right towards them. Before Jamie knew what was happening, they were completely surrounded by Nightmares.
Jamie stared around wildly at all the Nightmares.
"Nightmares?! H-How..?!
Pitch grabbed Jamie's arm but paused after that. How did the boy know about them or what they were called?
"What do you know about Nightmares?" he demanded.
Jamie stared up at Pitch and swallowed. In the dark, he seemed so much bigger and more dangerous.
"Answer me!" Pitch said harshly as he shook Jamie a little.
"..I.. what?" Jamie said, in a small, confused voice.
"The Nightmares made of black sand! What do you know about them?"
Pitch said as he narrowed his eyes at the boy.
Jamie looked up at Pitch with wide eyes. He'd never seen Pitch be so scary before!
"..I don't think.." Jamie began, but Pitch gave him another jarring shake that cut him off in mid-sentence.
"It won't matter what you tell me if you succeed in your mission," Pitch reminded Jamie impatiently. "Tell me!"
Jamie found himself blurting out everything. Once he'd realized what he'd done, it made him want to cringe.
"In my time you used Nightmares to try and take over the world! I-I don't know what they're doing here now," Jamie said in a quavering voice to Pitch. "I don't know if they're supposed to be here this early or not."
Pitch looked down at Jamie, his yellowish golden eyes seeming to almost glow in the dark. It was by far one of the creepiest things Jamie had ever seen.
The Nightmares still had them surrounded but were a distance away, trapping them but not being too close.
Pitch's expression slowly changed from a rather vicious narrow-eyed look to one more of concern. He loosened his tight hold on Jamie and looked for a moment as if he wanted to say something to the boy. He looked around at all the Nightmares surrounding them and Jamie saw that Pitch almost looked.. afraid.
Even though Jamie's heart was pounding harder than it ever had and he was certain that this was one of the scariest moments he'd ever had, a small part of him couldn't help but wonder what was going on.
"..No.." Pitch whispered as he stared around at the Nightmares. "No.. I.. I thought I had it under control..**"
"Had what under control?" Jamie asked as he tried to keep his voice from trembling.
What's going to happen to me?!
Jamie's fear practically screamed at Pitch, but before Pitch had a chance to say anything more, the Nightmares formed a tighter circle around the both of them. Jamie could almost feel the evil pouring off of them and as they drew closer, Pitch's look of almost fear vanished and he tightened his grip on Jamie once again.
"Never you mind," Pitch said as he looked down at Jamie with a cold, calculating look that had Jamie shivering. A malevolent grin slowly spread on Pitch's face, that made Jamie want to run away.
"You would make a powerful ally," Pitch said as he beckoned the Nightmares ever closer. "Imagine, a powerful believer entrusted with the most important mission. What would the Guardians say if you suddenly.. had a change in faith?"
Jamie gulped as Pitch's grin grew wider and he tried really hard to dredge up some courage.
"I'll never help you!" Jamie declared.
As he said that, he remembered the effect his touch had on the Nightmares and he reached out towards them. They were stopped just short of his fingertips, however, and he couldn't reach them.
While Jamie's attention was focused on the Nightmares, he failed to notice the glint of a dark blade. With the moon blocked by the clouds, it was difficult to see much of anything.
As Jamie tried in vain to reach out towards the Nightmares, he began to realize that Pitch's plan involved something far more sinister than he had thought. When he felt the sharp sting of a blade on his arm, he cried out and looked up at Pitch in horror.
While Sandy raced out into the night, desperate to save a child, he never realized that there was another in desperate danger.
As Sandy rushed off to save Lillian, he never heard Jamie's terrified scream as a cloud of Nightmares surrounded him, determined to find a way to change his light.
Bunny wound up staying at the Pole that night, alternating between pacing in front of the globe and staring at Lillian's light intensely. Was it getting dimmer? Or brighter?
He grumbled as he paced and looked at all the other dim lights in Burgess. How could all of this happen in one night?! Shouldn't the lights be getting brighter by now? Surely Sandy was giving all the children good dreams about the Guardians.
Bunny stopped pacing to look intently at the globe again. This time he wasn't looking at poor Lillian's dim light. No, he was looking at the one bright light in all of Burgess. But now that light seemed to not be getting dim, but getting darker.
Bunny stared as the light started to turn as dark as night.
An exhausted Sandy turned up in the middle of the night to enlist Bunny and North's help. Tooth was off directing her fairies from her palace, and as far as she knew, everything was fine.
Sandy had golden symbols flashing over his head to tell them that everything was not fine. In fact, everything was all wrong!
"What do ya mean a Nightmare kidnapped her?!" Bunny roared as he deciphered Sandy's symbols. "Where did it take her?!"
Sandy shrugged helplessly as he told North and Bunny that he tried to follow after, but the Nightmare had vanished by the time he made it outside. He had no idea where the Nightmare could have gone. Once again he made the golden symbol of Pitch over his head and Bunny growled.
"We must find her," North said. "We will have to spread out over Burgess and look everywhere. Is not been long since she was taken, no? The Nightmare could not have gotten far."
"That's not all," Bunny said as he gestured at the globe. "See that light?"
North and Sandy looked at the globe and their eyes widened.
"What is happening to that child?!" North cried out in distress.
"I dunno," Bunny said, "but that light belongs ta that kid. That Jamie."
Sandy looked even more worried at that. He remembered how Bunny had said that Jamie had hourglasses from Father Time. In the wrong hands that could be devastating!
It was daytime now and Lillian found herself on the way to school again but detoured when she saw Bunny at the park. She walked over to him and looked up at him sheepishly.
"I'm sorry, Easter Bunny.." she said softly to him. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings yesterday. I had a bad dream about you, and it made me scared you were going to yell at me, like in my dream."
Bunny reached out as if to pat her on the shoulder in comfort, but instead, his grip was hard and painful. Lillian winced and looked up at Bunny with wide eyes.
"What makes ya think I'll forgive ya for bein' so dumb as ta believe a nightmare?" Bunny said with a harsh glare at her.
Lillian looked as if Bunny had slapped her and tears gathered in her eyes.
"I thought.. I thought you liked me."
Bunny's next words made the tears fall down Lillian's cheeks as she began to cry.
"Well, you thought wrong."
Gethen smirked at Lillian, whom the Nightmare had kidnapped at his order. He had the Nightmare bring her back to his cave since he distinctly remembered being away at this time and he was starting to miss his home. She was currently asleep, having been knocked unconscious suddenly as the Nightmare had turned into a cloud of black sand and flown at her, sending her into a state of neverending nightmares.
The dreams would seem so realistic and damage her belief in the Guardians even more. Gethen had no issue with the Guardians specifically, but if it hurt the brat, then all the better. He knew he had already gotten his revenge by preventing her from becoming the Child of Spring, but he found he wanted more. She could be having a happy life as mortal and that just wouldn't do.
Once he had destroyed her belief, he would let her go. He hadn't planned on keeping her forever. It would be too cumbersome to have to look after a child for a long period of time. He was sure it wouldn't take long for Lillian's belief to fade, and then he could return back to the present and see the results of his handiwork. He was certain that he'd find an adult Lillian who was broken and depressed, her life void of all meaning.
It would be glorious!
He was so lucky that he had happened to stumble into this time on accident and just so happened to see that brat Jamie talking with Pitch Black, of all people. He had seen the Amulet of Protection*** around the boy's neck and knew precisely what Jamie was up to.
In breaking Lillian's belief, not only would he gladly get even more revenge on her, he'd also break that Jamie brat of the notion that he could do anything to help her.
No, Lillian was doomed.
There would be no Child of Spring.
There would be no happy child, period.
As a somewhat insane evil smirk graced his features, a voice startled him out of his thoughts.
"What the.. What.. What are you doing here?!"
Gethen turned and stared at himself in surprise. Wasn't he supposed to be away?
1974 Gethen was looking at Time Traveler Gethen in horror.
Bunny's ears went back as he looked at the globe in dismay. He watched as Lillian's light grew even dimmer than before.
What was happening to her?!
They had to find her.
They had to.
As Bunny worried over Lillian and Gethen literally started to argue with himself, Jamie was struggling with Pitch Black, who still held him by the arm in a cruelly tight grip.
"What did you do to me?!" he shrieked, as he started to feel incredibly strange.
It felt like a sort of darkness was overwhelming him inside and he did not like it. His belief, which was always very strong was trying to combat the darkness of the Nightmares, but there was so much black sand inside of him. Far more than what Lillian had had when Pitch had changed her. He even had more than Jack, not that Jamie was aware of it.
No, what he was aware of was the evil smirk Pitch was giving him. He was so foolish to trust Pitch! Pitch had seemed so genuine, so.. so.. trustworthy. He should have known he could never trust Pitch outside of his own time.
Jamie's last thoughts before the darkness completely overwhelmed him was how he had failed in his mission.
He would never help the Child of Spring now.
*So, in the movie it looks like Pitch has created the Nightmares for the first time. If we're also following the book plots though, Nightmares (fearlings) have existed the entire time. In fact, Pitch, when he was Kozmotis Pitchiner, used to go after them and lock them up! To compensate for this, I decided that in the murky time between the books and the movies that all the Nightmares at one time or another had probably vanished until Pitch found a way to recreate them by messing with Sandy's dreamsand.
**Don't forget, Pitch was evil before he became more evil. In the books, he was a good person until the Nightmares tricked him into opening the door to their cell and then thousands of them flooded into Pitch, turning him into Pitch Black. So I figure Pitch has been battling this darkness for centuries. All the evil things he's done are when the darkness inside of him has become too strong. In 1974, he's at a time in his life where he's had a long stretch of keeping the darkness at bay. He's able to spread nightmares more responsibly and is almost like the Pitch in Jamie's present time. That darkness however, becomes stronger when the Nightmares are close by. The sheer evil of them is reacting with the other Nightmares that are inside Pitch, causing him to become more evil again.
***I forgot to mention this earlier. Since nobody had any guesses on what I stole the Amulet of Protection from, I'll just tell you. It's auryn from the Neverending Story. If you haven't read the book or watched the movie, you should do it. The movie is amazing and I love the opening theme song.
Author's Note: Whew, this chapter certainly has a lot going on! I hope you guys are as amused as I am at Gethen talking to Gethen there. Time Traveler Gethen hasn't quite realized that by changing just one event, he's essentially changed everything. I don't think he's quite realized just how much Lillian being the Child of Spring has impacted everyone's lives.
And yes, Pitch has an evil plot going on while Gethen has an evil plot going on. Both are clueless to what the other is doing, so this should be very.. fun.
This chapter was very difficult for me to write. I had a hard time making Bunny to be mean to Lillian in her dream, and I struggled with just how Pitch was going to be evil to Jamie. I felt like it was a bit repetitive having Jamie get possessed by the black sand, but then I realized that this Pitch wouldn't know about what the other Pitch did and he would be most likely to do this. It seems like the black sand is too strong for Jamie's belief to wipe it out, so it'll be interesting to see how Jamie gets out of this one.
As always, if you guys have any ideas or suggestions regarding anything, my ears are open!
