(A/N: So, this really was supposed to be only a one-shot, but what with someone following this story and the idea coming to me all at once, I decided to make this a multi-chapter, showing what really happened to the Guardians before Shibusen took over the work of eliminating kishin eggs/kishins/Fearlings, until the next chapter of the manga comes and we'll know what really happened to Maka!

First part. I hope it's dark enough.

And I don't own anything in this chapter. Not even Pitch's liquid robe; it comes from ask-pitch's-wardrobe on Tumblr.)

The darkness seemed to close in on him, a speck of white in all this black and grey. Drops of water leaked from the ceiling, from a crack which led to a leaking pipe. It added to the eeriness of the place he was held captive in, and all he wanted was to close his eyes and pretend this was all a nightmare.

But how could he pretend, he realized.

He never had a nightmare.

At least never one that existed in his head.

This could be classified as one he experienced in real life, as were many others.

His arms struggled to move against their bonds, only for his ears to hear clanking and shifting of nightmare sand. He closed his eyes, but did not sleep. He calmed himself. He would not give his captor the satisfaction of feeling his fear.

"So you're awake," a voice echoed, and his blue eyes opened. They darted around the room before settling on one particular shadow, a silhouette of someone he knew.

"I told you, Nightmare King, he would stay awake even if we capture him and take his home." Another voice said. Smooth and mellifluous, and you could have mistaken it for the voice of something good, though the captive knew it was anything but.

The two shadows came closer to him, until their faces took on profiles that he had seen before, on the battle on the Moon.

Pitch Black, and Kishin Asura.

Tsar Lunar's mouth became a thin line. He would not talk.

"Look at the poor man," Asura said, his skin scarves floating in the air near him, making him seem bigger, intimidating. "Are you comfortable there, little man?" MiM glared at him, his soft breathing the only sound coming from him.

"Leave him be, Kishin," Pitch told his comrade. "He's just acting haughty all because I failed to give him a nightmare when he was just a little baby. He thinks he's so important because he survived the explosion I should have died in, and became the leader of all his precious Guardians." Here Pitch stroked under MiM's chin, as if he were a chained dog. MiM moved his head away, but the devilish smirk never left Pitch's face.

It reminded him of the night before. The night which had started as MiM watching over the children of Earth and ending with a battle on the Moon, and Pitch won this time. He won and took MiM to Earth the same speed as a meteor falls to the ground. He won because the Kishin Asura was on his side.

He hoped the battle wouldn't go unnoticed by the Guardians.

"What's the matter, Lunanoff?" Pitch asked, scratching him behind the ears with unusually sharp grey fingernails. "Afraid the Guardians won't come in time to save you?"

"I'm not afraid of any of you." MiM declared. "Taunt me, give me nightmares, do whatever you want with me, but I swear, if you touch any of the Guardians, you will pay for it with your life."

"And how are you going to do that, locked up here like a caged parrot that won't stop talking?" Asura asked. "And even if you could touch us, I'm afraid one of the Guardians wouldn't do the same for you." He tapped his chin in thought, all three of his eyes blinking, before he sneered ear-to-ear. "His name was Jack Frost, I believe?"

MiM's eyes widened.

"Don't bring the boy into this."

The Kishin only smiled more. Found his weak spot.

"He almost went insane out of fear that you would never talk to him."

"I tried to reach out to him."

"You never believed in him."

"I love him with all my heart."

The scarves moved closer. "Maybe I could teach him a lesson?"

"Don't you even think about laying a hand on him!" MiM pulled on his chains even more, sprinkling more nightmare sand on his sleeves, dulling the white and turning them grey.

"We won't have to," Pitch said, and then moved away for MiM to look around for him. "You'll do the harming for us."

"I'll never do that for you. Never to the Guardians. Never to Jack."

"Never? That's too big of a promise to make, little man," Asura said, and MiM looked back to him, only to see nothing. He barely had time to react before scarves danced in front of him – or were those shadows?

"Or maybe you're imagining things. Such a sad, sad tale of insanity."

"Stop it." The ocean blue eyes suddenly lost their light.

"Maybe it is," and Pitch's black sand started to shift, "what if this was all just a nightmare? What if it's all in your head?"

"…Is it?"

He never felt the scarves move closer until they were stroking his face.

"It can't be. There's no way your nightmare sand would ever get close to the Moon."

"There is."

MiM's eyes widened.

"And I figured out how to do it."

Something pushed through his back, and then through his chest. MiM looked down to see an exact replica of Nightlight's staff going through his chest – only it was made of nightmare sand.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that, Tsar Lunar," Pitch said behind him, and then leaned over MiM's head to look him in the eye. Something liquid and black dripped onto MiM's head. It rolled down his cheek like a tear and fell on his chest.

"What…"

"You won't be there to stop it, old friend."

MiM's eyes popped open. It took him a moment to realize that he was sweating and panting and in bed. He sat up and looked around the room.

Something was definitely wrong.

Nightmare sand shifted under the bed.

MiM moved to the side of the bed and looked under it. It was for only a split second, but he could have sworn that he saw something take the black sand away.

Something with three eyes on it.

The mark of Kishin Asura.

MiM inhaled sharply and did not go back to sleep.

Somewhere on Earth, beneath the full moon, Pitch grinned and was pleased with himself for taking sides with the almost-most powerful being on the planet.

"Very good work," he said to his new comrade, who was also hiding in the shadows with him. "Continue doing this until we have him in our grasp."

"More souls…to feed on…more power…" Asura said. He smiled from ear-to-ear, the same smile that MiM had seen in his dream. "I like it."

This was how the Man in the Moon began to have nightmares.

(…What have I written?)