Chapter 11: The Archives of Pitch Black

Elsa only got a few hours of rest but she couldn't go to sleep. She was too restless. Elsa's eyes snapped open. Her bedroom was one of many in Château Rouge. It was seated in the guest quarters of the building. Ragnar was seated in the room right next to her. All the bedrooms in the guest quarters were practically identical. They all had a single bed lined with white linin. A small wooden bedside table with two drawers seated in them and a lamp on top which was plugged into a plug right behind. A small wardrobe with some coat hangers hanging in them was also visible. Elsa had hung up some of her things in this wardrobe and placed her bag inside it as well.

Pitch Black was on the mind that each room should only be used for its original function. For example a bedroom should only be used for sleeping and nothing else, not for studying, not for relaxing it. Pitch did have a strange outlook on life.

Elsa pulled off her sheets and stood up. Pitch had outfitted his castle to have window with special attached screens so that no sunlight could ever come in. Since Elsa couldn't sleep, she decided to go poking around. She opened her door and stepped out. The entire castle was pitched dark. Elsa used to be afraid of the dark when she was a little girl. Combing around her family's massive house in the dark wasn't fun for a little girl with a massive imagination; the suits of armour are walking, the portraits are moving, someone is watching her, there are ghosts walking alongside her. But now, she was herself a shadow in the night now, prowling and hunting.

Elsa's senses were at their best in the night. Well, they would be as she was a creature of the night. Elsa didn't need a torch or some kind of light source to see. Her eyes were primed to see in the dark. Elsa headed down corridor after corridor. She was careful not to be too loud but that again wasn't a problem. Her feet made no sound as they made contact with the polished wooden floors. She constantly was checking her surroundings to make sure that no one was around her. That was the problem with old buildings; they always made you think that something is watching every move you make.

Elsa had a rough idea where Pitch's archives were. She had heard stories from other Vampires about Château Rouge and established a rough map in her head but it may not be good enough. Elsa passed into another part of the castle and moved past the entrance way into the chapel. When Château Rouge was built it was during a time of great religion in the area. Pitch adopted this practice to appear more normal. Vampires were considered children of the devil. Pitch didn't want that kind of attention. However Elsa did know that Pitch used to be a devote Catholic but his faith turned to hatred when he became a Vampire. He had thought he had been abandoned and now Elsa didn't know what he believed.

Elsa continued moving until she found what she was looking for. Pitch was an incredibly intelligent and loved accumulating knowledge which turned into a massive library forming. Elsa opened the door to this and entered. There were shelves on upon shelves of books in rows. Elsa quickly realised that the books were lined alphabetically and by year. The books were as recent as AD 2015 and as early as 1450 BC. Elsa was impressed by his collection. She headed backwards into the library. Pitch would have his personal archives in a special place. She was right. It took her a while before she found them. They were in a row just off to the side of the main ones. Elsa did the mistake of searching the older volumes first as she thought that Pitch would have stored them there but he didn't. She eventually went through the years studying the tones that she found. It wasn't until she got to the twenties and searching the book Mein Kampf (it is original German) did she believe that it was a waste of time what she was doing and she decided to circle back to the beginning.

She shut the book and placed it back where she found it. She headed back to the start and was shocked that she found more than she thought was there. The start, which she had assumed to be when the books started according to year, hadn't been what she thought. There was another row of books just before the row that she that she had started at. Elsa found folders and folders of books. She randomly picked one at random and opened it. She was shocked to find what she found.

The folders had pieces and pieces of handwritten notes. The handwriting was small and cursive. The handwriting was neat but sometimes unreadable. She knew it was Pitch's handwriting. He had liked to document his life since his Turning. Very little information about his previous life wasn't known such as the wife that Elsa reminded him so much. A shiver ran down her spin just thinking about that moment. What would have happened if Anton hadn't stepped in when he did? Well she would hopefully have the strength to throw Pitch off. The same Vampire strength that flowed through Pitch also flowed through her. Elsa decided to focus on what was in front of her instead. Her eyes went to the writing that was sitting on her lap. She managed to get some things out of it.

Feb 12th 1152

The subject, DX – 2999, showed same signs. Fever present. Aches and pains present.

Death occurred at 18:31.

Dose too much?

Elsa read this feeling quite lost. What was Pitch talking about? Was this some experiment that Pitch was doing? Elsa read further.

Feb 28th 1152

Subject, DZ – 1111, showed little signs of change. Fever broke within hours. No aches or pains present.

Subject survived.

Dose too little?

Elsa was still a little confused at what she was reading. She decided to press onwards. There could be a clue further down that she was missing. She skipped a little ahead as pretty much all she was reading was pretty much all the same until she came to something different which sparked her interest.

June 30th 1155

Subject, XX – 2110 – success. Fever present. Aches and pains present. The three days present. Change present.

Subject is a success.

Elsa stared at this and then it clicked in her head. Pitch was describing what happens when someone is Turned into a Vampire. She looked at dozens of other entries. They were pretty much identical to all this. That is what Pitch was doing. He was experimenting on people to determine how to change people into Vampires. The art of Turning wasn't an exact science. Sometimes the victim Turned, sometimes they didn't. It was all to do with how much venom goes into the victim. According to Pitch's notes and Elsa's own knowledge, too much venom would cause the victim to spasm, have high fevers, aches and pains before dying. Too little would cause some fevers, some aches but you will survive. Based on these notes, Elsa knew what he was after. Pitch was after the perfect amount of venom to inject into his victims to Turn them into a Vampire.

Elsa shut the folder. Pitch had been looking for the way to create the perfect Vampire army and according to his notes he had created one. Elsa looked through the other notes. There were notes on the every person that he had ever experimented on. According to the notes, they were prisoners sent to Pitch to be a part of his – what he called – scientific research. The prisoners were offered a deal; if they participated they may have the chance to live instead of being in prison or being hung for their crimes.

Elsa read further. At the beginning, Pitch had a one hundred percent death rate as Pitch had lost control in his desire for blood. He had overkilled his victims. Then Pitch had a desire for not to kill but instead only inject a little bit of venom into his victims. His death rate dropped to zero. Then he started to experiment with how much venom he would then inject into his victims. It varied from ten percent to nighty eight percent. Elsa studied his work. Pitch had worked on this for years and years. He was trying to get the formula just right. Then Elsa found something quite remarkable.

There was an extensive list of everyone that became a Vampire during his trials. One name jumped out of her. It was a Mary-Jane Hopkins. A twenty two year old woman from London in 1221. Elsa stared at her. She knew her. She didn't know that she had been part of Pitch's original trials. Elsa looked through Pitch's notes. There wasn't much in it that she didn't already know. However there was one thing that she knew that Pitch didn't. She had died many years ago. This wasn't in his notes. Maybe Pitch didn't know. Elsa went through more of Pitch's archives. They documented many Vampire events such attacks or killings. Elsa soon came across a little insert in one of Pitch's folders. It was about a series of attacks in Arendelle. As soon as Elsa saw the name Arendelle, she knew it was talking about her and the Vampire that Turned her. Elsa stared at the documentation of it. There wasn't much. Only a paragraph about suspicious attacks that were happening in Arendelle. There were also newspaper clippings from that time that documented the attacks. Underneath, in Pitch's handwriting said the word 'Vampire'.

A noise suddenly alerted Elsa to the fact that she was sneaking around a library without permission. If she was found by Pitch or one of Pitch's men as she went through Pitch's personal books, she could be pulled up for practically treason. Elsa quickly shut the folder and placed it back on the shelves. She hurried across the rows and out of the library. She managed to get back to her room before she ran into Ragnar.

"Elsa," he said when he saw her. He was surprised to see her just as much as she was surprised to see him. "What are you doing?"

"Couldn't sleep," replied Elsa. "So I went for a walk. What about you?"

"I heard a noise that awoke me," Ragnar explained.

"Oh," Elsa said. "Well, the meeting is tomorrow, I think I may try and get some more sleep."

"That may be a good idea," Ragnar smiled.

Elsa smiled back before she hopped back into bed.

"Kill Pitch Black?" Jack wasn't sure that he had heard that correctly.

"Indeed," North said. "He is the one who is behind all of this. I don't like having to murder people but while Pitch still breathes, then it could be dangerous to let him live."

"How?' Jack said. "We have weapons but that may not be enough. I don't even know where he lives."

Jack was suddenly struck by a thought. "He's in France."

"France?" Manny repeated. He went into deep thought for a moment. "Of course."

"Of course what?" North asked. "Manny, you're not making much sense."

"He bought property there back in the twelve hundreds," Manny explained. "There were rumours about what he was doing there."

"Rumours?" Jack didn't like the sound of that.

"People went in and they never came out," Manny said. "People said that they died a bloody death. They nicknamed it Château Rouge – literally Red Castle."

"So you both think that he's hold up in Château Rouge?" North asked.

"Yes," Jack said while Manny nodded.

"Do you know where the property is?" North asked. He turned to Jack. "Did Elsa mention anything where she was going?"

"No, just France," Jack said. "I actually joked that she was going to Transylvania."

"That's just a myth, Jack," North said.

"So does everyone know that but me?" Jack looked a little flabbergasted.

"What about you Manny?" North asked. "Do you know where Pitch is held up at this Château Rouge?"

"Rough idea, it's near Paris, somewhere" Manny said. "But our Werewolves senses should help with that."

"Indeed," North said. "Jack, gather the rest of The Guardians. We leave at first light for Paris."

Just the mention of The Guardians was enough to get Bunnymund into his brain. Jack didn't know what he was going to do with him. He had betrayed him all be for the good of the Werewolves in his brain but that didn't change a thing. Jack had trusted him with a secret and Bunnymund had betrayed that. Bunnymund spouted all this crap about loyalty but it didn't seem to have rubbed off him. Jack sighed a low sigh. What should he say to him? What should he do? Tooth would kill Bunnymund if she found out. Maybe Jack shouldn't breathe a word of this to Tooth until he got the full story from Bunnymund. He could be missing something and everything turned out okay which was something that Jack wasn't expecting at all.

"Okay," Jack nodded.

Jack stood up and left North's office. His head was buzzing with what he heard. He had found out about not only Pitch's history but Manny's as well. He had found out more than he ever thought. No one really did know a lot about it but it guessed that Jack now had the full story – about the war, about how Werewolves and Vampires first got their start. It was all rather strange to Jack. Jack breathed in deeply and headed in the direction of his room where he found it empty. He wanted to throw himself onto the bed but he decided against it. He needed to find Bunnymund.

It didn't need a genius to figure out where Bunnymund is. He found him in his room. They were relaxing on his bed and both looked up when Jack entered the room. Tooth smiled broadly at him but Bunnymund gave him a strange look.

"North wants me to collect to Guardians," Jack said.

"Why?" Bunnymund's eyes narrowed.

"Mission in France," Jack said.

"Oh cool," Tooth said. "I guess that is where Pitch is."

"Indeed," Jack nodded.

"I better go pack!" and with that Tooth was out the door and running towards her room.

"I need to talk to you," Jack said.

"About what happened with North?" Bunnymund asked.

"Yeah," suddenly Jack's voice got a lot firmer. "How could you do that to me Bunny? I thought we were friends."

"But you were hanging around a blood-drinker!" Bunnymund retorted. "I had to do something."

"Who is someone from my past!" growled Jack. "She is not being a spy. She is not trying to get information out of me."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know her!" Jack snarled.

"But she's a Vampire Jack!" Bunnymund said. "You cannot trust her."

"I trust her with my life! Bunny, I trusted you to keep a secret for me and you decided to stab me in the back."

"You did what Edmund?" an angry voice from behind them said.

Jack whirled around and saw that Tooth standing behind them with a horrible look on her face. She couldn't believe what she had just heard.

Elsa was in the library again. Another whole day had gone by without any further incidents. It appeared that after their little meeting, Pitch hadn't tried anything more but that didn't mean he wouldn't. Elsa was interested in finding out more about his wife and family. Not much is mentioned about his family which is why she was trying to find out more now. She was going through Pitch's personal files in his archives.

This time, Elsa was a lot more on edge. She was looking through Pitch's personal life. If Pitch saw her going through them, it was practically treason in his eyes. Pitch was a private person and hated anyone prying but Elsa was curious. She wanted to know more. However there wasn't much to find out. All that Elsa could find was a birth certificate and a death certificate. The cause of death that was listed was indeed an illness, according to this, it was ovarian cancer. But there was something else in these files. It was a letter from the time that Pitch was a human. According to the letter it was saying that Pitch's wife, Katerina Pitchiner, had divorced Pitch. The reason? It wasn't stated. Elsa wasn't going to give up. Katerina Pitchiner would have had a reason to leave Pitch. She knew that Pitch was creepy but Elsa was sure that he wouldn't have been back there.

She found photos of Pitch and some woman who resembled the lady in the portrait which meant it was Katerina Pitchiner. There were also other people who Elsa guessed was people from his past life. There was also a man who Elsa recognised. It was the leader of the Werewolves, Tsar Lunar. What was Pitch doing with him? Were they friends in their past lives? It was likely.

Then Elsa found what she was looking for. It was a newspaper article telling about a scandal and the scandal revolved around Katerina Pitchiner and her husband, Kozmotis Pitchiner. Elsa knew that was Pitch's real name. He had adopted the name Pitch Black after he became a Vampire. Elsa saw that that Katerina Pitchiner had an affair with an unnamed man. So this was what Pitch was hiding; the fact that his wife had left him for another man. Elsa couldn't help but feel sorry for Pitch but then she had no idea of what happened between them. The marriage could have been a sham since the very beginning. Well, she hoped that they did love each other at some point as they did end up married to each other. But times were different then, people married for all sorts of reasons such as for money or to increase one's class. It could have been for one of the reasons. Love didn't always play a part in choosing a partner to spend the rest of your life with. Elsa should know. Her father wouldn't have cared that she had loved Jack. He wanted her to marry someone of high class.

Elsa decided that it would be soon time to get back to her room. Elsa shut the folder that she was reading and put it back. Elsa found her way back to her room without any problems at all. Once she got there, she got a massive fright. Her room wasn't empty. Inside she found Anton and he wasn't looking too happy.

"Anton?" she asked.

"Elsa," he said firmly, "why would you have a picture of a Guardian in your procession?"

"What?" Elsa said.

Anton produced her picture of Jack, held it up and showed it to her. Elsa's heart sank when she saw that Anton had it in her hand.

A/N: Uh-oh, what's going to happen now with Anton? What will happened with Bunnymund, Jack and Tooth too? Well, bad news guys, Uni starts tomorrow for me so updates may not be as regular. I'll do my best though! Anyway, I hope that enjoyed this update. Please review =)

Reviews:

Guest Reviews: I'm sleepy too, lol. Well it is 10pm here when I am writing this review and that is kind of late for me especially since I've had a busy day (21st party). Pitch is always the bad guy in my stories because in the source material he is. I really wouldn't know who would be the bad guy if I didn't make him the bad guy apart from maybe an OC like in Battle For Her Heart. I did have an idea in one of my many Jelsa stories that had North as the enemy as well as Pitch but I will never write it. North as the bad guy just didn't seem right to me. It would be awkward trying to write that story. Yeah, I thought that reviewer's idea was a good one which is why I included it. Always happy to have people give me good ideas from time to time. His wife did cheat, this chapter just proved that everyone is telling the truth but people are only telling the truth that they know or the truth they want others to know. I think Pitch is ashamed that his wife cheated and so doesn't like people knowing that. Yeah there was a reason why she looked like Elsa. There will never be Pitch/Elsa in my stories, hints maybe but Jelsa will always win the day. Well for the moment, I was on my winter break but now its over, so not happy. I may be able to update quickly, hopefully, but not sure. I don't know how much workload I am going to get. The first couple of weeks are pretty good though (as people can drop out of that class during that time), so maybe during this time, I might. I generally am able to update quickly as I don't really do much apart from uni work and writing. A rhetorical question is simply a question that does not need answering, so it is really up to you if it is or not but I would say, in my opinion, that it wasn't.

Guest: Yeah, lucky when Anton came when he did. You can imagine what would have happened if he didn't, it would definitely have gotten awkward.

ElsaTheSnowQueen2: Thanks, yeah, Elsa don't panic!

Guestie: Yeah, Pitch is creepy, this chapter may just increase that creepiness. Interesting how you mentioned serial killers, Vampires were invented to explain serial killers at one point in Human history. But is Pitch really a serial killer? Well, I would definitely say yes. Based on his history, he has killed quite a few people. He's not the only Vampire in this story though who has killed (and could be considered a serial killer). I'll leave that up to you to figure out who I am referring to.

LayLay123: Well all good things must come to an end I'm afraid. Well Elsa has drunken blood from humans before and it didn't make her a bad person. A bad act doesn't necessary mean that the person is bad. Thanks so much!

lollipop3056: Agreed! Glad they're on Jelsa's side too. Well, maybe Jack will find out. Who knows? Thanks so much!

Guest (Mixybell): Pitch does digest me sometimes too. Pitch was good once in this story too but his jealousy and rage got the better of him. I haven't seen many stories that go into Pitch's background too much though. I do like his background though too.

Frostbite Productions: I do because I've done research into it. Frozen is set between 1840-1850, so Adgar probably died before 1840 but you could push it if you wanted to. Your writing needs work and editing, I'm afraid. Why are there words missing? You said it was your phone but I've never heard of a phone doing that.

KMiKO12: Pitch may want Elsa. At the moment, she reminds him of what he lost which he is trying to cling onto. Thanks!

KAMICAKES: No problem on that clarification, always happy to help! Well he didn't lie as evidence in this. North only told Jack that she ran off. He never mentioned how she died. Glad you liked Manny's story. Haha, you may have to wait for Pitch's death - if that is going to come that is.

Kat-IlluninatedPurity: Well all good predictions, you may have to wait for later chapters to find out the truth. I have some ideas for Pitch's death. Not sure how I am going to do that - that's if I am going to do that at all. Pitch could escape, who knows? Thanks!