Summary: Slightly AU, set somewhat if in the middle of the movie, it took a different turn. Mentions of Dark!Jack. And a much more evil Pitch.

In order to once again claim the world, Pitch had to trick a winter sprite into falling under his control. The Guardians had been too focused on themselves and their duties, and had not caught onto Pitch's plan until too late and are now paying the price. The remaining Guardians must now hold on to the one called the "Shadow Creeper" until they can find Nightlight, the one The Man In The Moon has told them to temporarily recruit.

But little do they know she is a target for Mischief. And who is hellbent on capturing her.

*Jack/OC
one-sided Tooth/Jack
maybe Tooth/Bunny

T for language and mentions of death. May be rated M later for future mature content and maybe graphic writing.

Listen to: "basic instinct" by The Acid

Ch10:Potency

ˈpōtnsē | (noun) 1. the power of something to affect the mind or body.

"Pitch!"

Jack stumbled out from the shadows, clutching his staff. The portal closed behind him and he was plunged into the silent darkness, leaning his weight on his staff and stifling a wince.

Because of that girl—that sprite—that dumb bitch!—he now had a broken knee. He cursed under his breath, remembering the moments earlier when she kicked his knee in.

The Winter Prince hobbled forward pitifully, hood no longer hiding his face.

The Cavern was a maze of underground caves completely shrouded in shadows and freezing cold. Here, dark creatures of the imagination roamed, and nightmares stalked the halls serving as Pitch's personal henchmen. One, in the form of a stallion, flared its nostrils, catching sight of Jack.

Jack hobbled forward as the creature trotted up beside him and grunted. Jack ignored it, still trying to make his way to the steps in front of the large globe at the center of the caves, ahead.

At the center of The Cavern was a globe similar to North's and smaller in size. It was made of black stone, making up only the continents. Unlike the giant globe back at North's Workshop, the golden lights on this one indicated the nonbelievers—the children who feared—and the globe was glowing nicely.

Eventually, Jack made it to the stairs, plopping down with a loud grunt. He called out for The Boogeyman again. It was unlikely that Pitch would have left the place, and the freezing silence provided no answer.

Jack knew that Pitch wasn't going to be happy, he thought to himself, raising his leg up beside him. Pitch didn't take incomplete work. He didn't take half-done work, and to him, that was just the same as incomplete. Pitch didn't like unfinished work.

Last time, he had devoured a nightmare, absorbing it back into his body when it failed its duty to retrieve the Tooth Fairy's fairies. It had come back empty-handed and spotted by all of The Fabulous Four.

Jack had been against the wall, clutching his staff then. That had been years ago but still, it was dreaded to fall on Pitch's bad side.

Jack winced in pain when straightening his leg in front of him, and called out again.

Pitch was not going to like this...

Jack was nursing his leg when a sudden chill crept hip his back and around his neck. He knew what it was, and his senses went on alert, but before he could react, in a second, his throat was in an invisible hold. He felt the familiar chilly presence of Pitch, and The Boogeyman emerged from the shadow. Wafts of black smoke tangled around Jack's throat but held like a vice chokehold.

Jack choked.

The Boogeyman didn't say anything, haunting golden eyes studying the sprite, and upon seeing that he was alone, his eyes hardened and the smoke's hold tightened.

It suddenly released him, and Jack doubled over.

Pitch ghosted in front of Jack with his hands folded behind his back and a calm look about his features, waiting for the other's excuse.

Jack held his throat, coughing.

"I…I was seen. All four of them came. I had her and then the rest of the claudes had come." He spat to the ground.

Pitch's look didn't waver. "And you got a little boo-boo from it?" he tisked instead.

Jack looked at him in rage. "I had swords to my throat! And my knee was bent back by that little—-"

"And you think that's an excuse to come back empty handed?" His tone was still calm but Jack knew the threat behind those words and quieted.

Jack looked to the ground and shook his head. He bowed his head, stretching his neck out for Pitch's blow.

Pitch stared at him for a moment before ordering the other to stand.

Jack struggled, winced, and wobbled. He cursed to himself, threatening that he was going to have his revenge on Shadow. He wasn't sure how to fix it, not having a broken bone in centuries.

"Now, now…we can't bring harm to our most precious part of this plan, now can we?"'

"Yeah—you think I care about that?" Jack snapped. "That little hussy is going to pay, breaking my goddamn—-" He broke off, leg giving out from under him and he cried out in pain, gripping his staff for support. A string of obscenities spilled from his mouth.

"Language," Pitch warned. He ordered for Jack to stand again.

Jack rolled his eyes but did as he was told. "I'm gonna skin her alive…pluck her teeth out, make her swallow so much darkness she'll swell up. And then I'm gonna string her up—-"

This time Pitch cut him off, grabbing Jack under his face with one hand and lifting him off the ground. Pitch's eyes were no longer calm and his tone no longer flowed so smoothly.

"And you being so reckless is going to cost us both, you fool! I stole you for one purpose—to follow me. You belong to me."

Jack's eyes widened and Pitch's blazed, his voice echoing off the walls.

"You're already useless, returning empty-handed. I was just in Russia and claimed North Ossetia-Alania. And what have you done?" he taunted.

Three nightmares trotted up and began circling them slowly. Jack's gaze darted to his side to glance at them. When he looked back towards Pitch, The Boogeyman was flying away. Jack's head bounced off a boulder protruding from the floor.

Pitch disappeared into the shadows on the floor.

Jack was a little dazed from Pitch's throw but made out the mumbles under The Nightmare King's breath as he reappeared, rising from the shadow on the ground.

"You stupid, pathetic, worthless, despicable…! How dare you threaten my precious piece and think you have the authority!"

Jack struggled to his hands and his good knee. A force hit his face, twisting his head to the side and collapsing to the floor again—it was Pitch's power, not his fists. Pitch didn't like getting his hands dirty—not literally—except when absolutely necessary.

Another force hit Jack in the stomach, again, and again. Then what felt like needles and fists began attacking him from all sides. It was a blanket of shadow that blanketed over him now, causing shooting pain wherever it touched and made cuts across his pale skin. Jack curled with his hands over his head but the attacks kept coming, and his hands did nothing to protect him. Smoke slithered around his neck again and jerked him back, his back arching on the cold stone floor. The pain in his knee was no longer relevant.

Jack gagged.

"You're lucky I won't kill you right here…"

It wouldn't be easy to kill a sprite—none of the magical beings were easy to kill—but Pitch would be able to do it. It was difficult for a magical being to destroy another but it wasn't impossible.

Hearing this threat, Jack's eyes grew to saucers.

The smoke's hold tightened around his neck, eliminating his ability for air.

Pitch stood over him, hands behind his black cloak and watching the twisted sprite being choked on the floor.

"You will listen to me, do only as I say. Understand?"

Jack stared back, air unable to enter his lungs and starting to turn a lovely shade of blue.

"You do no more of your idiotic antics. Anything else that will cause me to become upset again or question you, you will be eliminated—you know that. The Nightmares have been craving sprite for decades now..."

Jack's cheeks had a tinge of purple. Another force punched him in the temple, dazing him. His neck was yanked backwards again.

"Now say that you understand. That you will not mess this up again, like you always had before." The anger was now gone from the sound of his voice.

Jack's mouth gaped, forming words without breath. His vision was blurring and bruises across his skin.

"Good." Pitch's thin lips curled in a monstrously wide, sharp-toothed smile that sent shivered down the sprite's spine.

The attacks and hold released Jack, who lunged forward gulping down air and returning to his usual pale complexion.

Pitch looked down at him in almost pity. He kicked the sprite with a foot, watching his smaller body twitching.

"And if you do that, then all of this is going to work. Jack," Pitch cooed, "you know that."

He knew the sprite wanted revenge, he could see it in Jack's eyes when he craned his neck at him.

"And you," Pitch grabbed Jack by his hair, pulling him up, "will not harm a hair on her head!" His fingers dug into Jack's scalp.

The winter sprite's eyes grew again seeing tendrils of dark smoke coming off of Pitch's arm, floating up in the direction of his face. Jack inwardly panicked.

Pitch continued to speak in that soft, velvety voice. "Don't let your antics get in the way, got it, Jack?"

The sprite panicked, trying to jerk his head back but Pitch's grip held strong. Pitch was much stronger than him. The black smoke swirled to his face, becoming darker, like shadows, the closer it got.

Pitch's fingers dug in Jack's scalp, keeping him steady. "And I will make sure of it."

The darkness entered his nose, slipped past Jack's tight lips. He immediately gagged—the usual first response to it. It was icy, choked him, and made its way in his system.

Pitch didn't do this, not regularly. It was usually done to others and not Jack.

Jack had had this in the beginning of his transformation, when Pitch first began darkening him. It was a fearful procedure that hurt like knives if the victim struggled too much—it was made worse by fear.

Jack gagged and Pitch let go, his body dropping like a bag of sand. He didn't move, cheek to the floor and the shadows drifting from Pitch's feet flowing in his airways. Jack's back rose and fell, an illusion of breath by dark shadows. A dark tendril came out like a tear in his left eye.

Pitch stood there and watched until looking to Jack's broken knee. He sneered. "Get some ice water to that," he noted about Jack's injury.

When you're in pain, time can feel to last forever. And it had felt like an eternity when the shadow finally retreated back to Pitch. The sprite was left with cuts on his skin and slightly trembling on the stone floor.

"Now, don't you try to make orders again, or it'll be the last day you will be able to see."

Jack didn't answer—not like he could.

"Now, next time, make sure you have the little problem-maker with you. You can do whatever you want with her until the plans are complete, but you don't dare harm a single fiber of her being—and probably alter her even more." He nudged Jack's face with his foot. "Don't come back again until you have her—and alive, and undamaged. I can always use you as a substitute, but we both know that's not the best idea..." The Boogeyman rubbed his temples for a moment before turning and vanishing back in the darkness. "Now get out of here," his voice echoed. "I'm tired of looking at you like this. …And do something right…"

A nightmare stood over the winter sprite as his system slowly took control again. Minutes ticked by until Jack was able to regain control again, and when he pulled himself from the floor, now even more angry, his brain like a swarm of bees had been inside. His narrowed eyes burned, revenge and hatred the only thing on his mind. He struggled to his feet, eventually accomplishing so with the help of the nightmare who then carried him on its back. Jack didn't know if Pitch had ordered it to stay at his side and didn't much care at the moment.

Jack held on to its back as it flew out of the caves and into the night sky.

It dropped Jack at a pond, frozen by the climate and in the middle of a forrest. It was perfect, secluded and quiet.

Jack limped out to the edge of the pond, the nightmare not far behind and watching with glowing, ghostly eyes. Steadying his weight on his good foot, Jack struck the ice with the end of his staff, shattering it. The ghostly stallion watched as Jack stripped from his clothing and carefully lowered himself in the ice water. He breathed a sigh when his injured knee hit the freezing water.

That wasn't the worst Pitch had been when ends weren't meant. The darkened man was far more cruel and had actually been easy on the winter sprite. Their plans had gotten disrupted when finding out that Shadow had escaped—Pitch blamed that on Jack too. It did nothing to aid Pitch's mood, and had sent Jack off to find her himself.

Head resting back on a patch of ferns, Jack rolled his neck hearing a flutter of wings. He glared at the owl perched on an oak branch, and with a flick of his hand, sent a flash of ice and froze it dead. The bird dropped like a stone to the snow.

The nightmare kicked it with a hoof.

Jack flexed his knee underwater and feeling no pain. He called the nightmare over as he slowly exited the ice water. Jack fingered the horse-shaped creature closer and it obeyed with a lowered head. He waited for it to come closer, bringing its bowed head to him, then sunk his teeth in the side of the stallion's neck.

A/N: How was this? Was it good or was it bad? Please tell me what you think because that's what keeps me writing more. I'm not sure if I should continue this story any more and just delete it because I don't even know if people are reading this.