~Chapter 5~

Ember woke up right at dusk feeling a little disoriented. Her head was pounding from last night's events. The nightmare came flooding back to Ember, making her start to shake a little from the fear that flowed through her. But then she remembered how Pitch had comforted her, and how he allowed her to fall asleep in his arms. Out of the three months she had been there, Pitch had never been so kind and comforting to her. It made Ember smile and a new energy flowed into her.

She then realized that Pitch and the fearlings were nowhere to be found, so Ember assumed that he was off on his rounds again. She didn't feel like staying cooped up in the cave alone so she brushed of her dress and disappeared into the shadows.

Ember walked out of the shadows of the woods and came to her favorite place to think, the frozen lake by the village. She created some of the dragons and sent them to spread fear across the nearby villages. As they flew away Ember hoped into the big oak tree by the lake and instantly started to think about how she could destroy the Guardians.

Ember knew that she needed to catch them off guard so they wouldn't be able to fight back, she needed to somehow gain their trust. If she gained their trust then they will think that Ember could do no wrong, and wouldn't dare try to destroy them. But she needed to find a way to gain their trust without betraying Pitch, she would need to tell him eventually.

Nicholas St. North and E. Aster Bunnymund seemed like the easiest to take down to Ember. All she had to do was destroy Norths Christmas toys and Bunnymunds Easter eggs so they wouldn't be able to give anything to the children of the world. They would no longer be believed in if the kids didn't get what they wanted. It was too easy, so Ember decided they would be the last to go.

Jackson Overland Frost was a nuisance to Pitch, he always seemed to get in the way. But he had no real way of bringing hope and wonder back to children, so he wasn't too much of a threat. He could be easily taken down by stealing and breaking his staff, his staff was his source of power and without it Jack was nothing more than a teenage boy. So all Ember had to do was figure out how to steal the staff from him. He had been tricked once by Pitch, but he certainly wouldn't fall for it again.

Toothina was easy enough. All Ember had to do was steal the teeth and her fairy's. Her fairy's so they couldn't go and collect the teeth, and the teeth so that Ember could blacken the memory's that were inside them. She knew it would work. She had read about Pitch doing the same thing, stealing the fairy's and blackening the teeth's memory's. His plan would have worked, but the Guardians got in his way. Ember would make sure that never happened again.

The last one left was Sandy, but he would be the hardest one to take down. He would also be the one to take down first since he could re kindle the light in kids through a simple dream. Sandy used dream sand, just like Pitch. Except Sandy's version of dream sand was to give good dreams, not nightmares. So all Ember had to do was taint his dream sand. But it is not as easy as it sounds. All Sandy had to do was create more dream sand and take down Pitch, thus making his nightmares into good dreams. But a thought occurred to Ember, what if she could learn how to manipulate Sandy's dream sand? Then Sandy couldn't fight back, and Ember would be able to manipulate Sandy. It was perfect, but she needed to find a way for Sandy to teach her. Sandy and Ember already knew each other from their run in a couple months ago, so maybe if Ember asked he might agree to it. She would have to find out the next chance she got.

Ember grew excited. Her plan was bound to work, but she had to find the time to tell Pitch. He was busy lately due to the increasing number of lights on the globe. Ember knew she had to act soon.

While Ember was busy planning how to take down the Guardians he nightmares were at work frightening the villagers. But no one seemed to notice that it had started to snow. Windows gathered frost on them, power lines froze, and even the town center water fountain froze. The roads began to ice, causing wrecks and panicked people rushed to the store to gather food for the oncoming blizzard.

Only Jack Frost himself could cause this much havoc in one night. Jack Frost had returned to his favorite village on Earth, Burgess. It was his original home village he lived in before he became a Guardian. He always loved to re visit it and play with the children of the village who believed in him.

But he was not here to play with the children this time. He felt that something wasn't right in the town and wanted to find out what it was. As he passed the bedrooms of sleeping children and adults he noticed some of them were having nightmares. Jack knew only one person who could be behind this, Pitch. So Jack started to search for Pitch, keeping his guard up.

Suddenly something flew across Jack, making him stop dead in his tracks. It was to fast for Jack to make out, but he knew what it was. So he instantly started chasing it, seeing if it would lead him to Pitch. As Jack got closer to the nightmare he realized it wasn't the usual horse that Pitch used to spread nightmares, but a dragon. This puzzled Jack, but he had to keep on their trail so he could find Pitch. Soon more dragons joined the one Jack was chasing, and they started to head to the lake were Jack and his sister used to go ice skating.

Before the nightmares got to the lakes edge they transformed into one big dragon, making Jack almost jump back. Jack watched at the lakes edge as the dragon swooped down and pulled a girl out of an old oak tree on the other side of the lake. Jack instantly hid behind one of the trees at the lakes edge. Jack was stunned, he was expecting to find Pitch but instead found a young beautiful girl. In fact she looked almost like Pitch. Jack was confused, he had never seen this girl before, and why did she look like pitch most of all? Jack had to find out, so he gathered up his courage and flew out to see who the women was.

Ember was startled when her dragon swooped her out of her tree. The dragon seemed urgent, like something was wrong. Ember could tell something wasn't right. The dragon put her down in the middle of the frozen lake and Ember tried to calm it down.

As soon as the dragon was calm Ember realized that it was starting to snow. She absolutely loved the snow, she used to play in it by herself when she was younger. She smiled as it covered her, almost turning her dress white instead of black. Suddenly there was a sudden blast of icy wind and she was blinded by snow twirling around her. Once it settled back down she felt someone beside her.

Ember jumped a little as she looked over and saw none other than Jack Frost, the Guardian of fun. Jack was pointing his staff at Ember, sizing her up. Ember almost couldn't believe her eyes, she had admired Jack for so long as a child. She never thought she would get to meet him, He still wore his old blue hoodie that was covered in frost, along with his skin tight pants that were bound in leather at the ankles. His white hair almost glowed in the night sky, frost covered almost every inch of it making it glint in the moonlight. His blue eyes shown as he continued to look Ember up and down. Ember was almost attracted to him.

"Who are you?" Jack finally asked, keeping his staff level.

Ember hesitated, she wasn't supposed to be communicating with the Guardians. But then she reminded herself of her plan. "I'm Ember, Ember Black." Ember smiled as she replied.

Jack looked stunned, he even lowered his staff a bit in surprise. "No... no that's not possible. Pitch doesn't have a daughter. Unless..." Jacks face turned from confusion to horrified. "Unless he blackened you soul."

Ember looked down as she remembered watching her parents die, and the pain of her soul being tainted. It made Ember want to fall down and cry, but she pushed the tears back and stood still.

Jack almost seemed to become furious at the thought. "How dare he taint an innocent child's soul!" Jack fumed as he lowered his staff and ran a hand through his hair, he knew this wasn't good.

"I'm seventeen thank you." Ember glared at Jack, she was getting tired of being called a child. Jack seemed to recoil at Embers glare and tried to utter an apology. "And besides, I chose to be with Pitch. So don't get all worked up."

"What? Why would you ever choose to be with him?" Jack looked bewildered, he didn't understand why anyone would ever want to be with such a vile man. Ember stopped glaring at Jack and felt a stab of pain run through her heart as she remembered her parents again.

"Because... He's the only one that has ever been there for me, he's all I have left." Embers voice wavered a little, it was true. Pitch really was the only person there for her, beside the man in the moon. But Pitch had saved her life, he offered her a family when she had none. He was the only thing Ember had left. She was forever in his debt.

Jack realized he had brought up something that he shouldn't of had and quickly tried to change the subject. He would rather see Ember glare at him than to see her almost burst into tears, which is hard to say since her glare terrified him.

"Well I don't know what happened, but I'm sorry." Jack hesitated for a second. "I-I'm Jack Frost by the way." Jack ran a nervous hand through his hair again. Ember managed a smile.

"Yes, a I know" Ember grinned as she rocked back and forth on her heel's, making her dress sway across the ice.

"Really? How?" Jack asked leaning on his staff, he couldn't help but grin.

"I've believed in you and the other Guardians since I was a kid. I used to read a lot about you and the Guardians when I was a child."

"Y-You believed in me? Wait. There are books about me?" Jack exclaimed perking up.

"Ha ha, should I catch you up on reality?" Ember knew this could be the perfect chance to become friends with jack, gaining his trust.

"I'd like that" Jack beamed.

So Ember caught Jack up on everything he had missed and what was going on in the past three-hundred years. How technology had become a major thing and things had become much easier for the human race. Ember even told him how he and the Guardians had become somewhat popular and that a lot of people believed in him.

As the conversation grew they ended up sharing past life story's and random knowledge. Somehow they even ended up challenging each other who could make the best design in the air with their magic. They both won since they could both create anything they wanted to, from dragons to waterfalls. By the time the first ray of sunlight came out from the horizon Ember and Jack had become friends. Ember's plane was working accordingly.

Ember and Jack where walking in the woods when the first ray of sun hit Ember. It the dawned on Ember that she was supposed to be back at the cave by know and almost panicked. How would she explain all this to Pitch? Ember summoned her dragon and hopped on its back.

"I'm sorry Jack, but I need to go. Pitch will be wondering where I am."

"Wait! When will I see you again." Jack asked before Ember had the chance to disappear. Ember looked back and smiled.

"You can usually find me by the oak tree if you're lucky." Ember called as she disappeared into the shadows, leaving Jack to think about Ember.

As Ember made her way back to Pitch's lair she stopped to give a couple nightmares and even play with the minds of the people who were awake. It was becoming easy to scare the wits out of anyone she passed, all she had to do was cast a shadow or make a strange noise to make them recoil in fear. She even went as far to hide under the beds of sleeping children and grab their legs when they were hanging off the beds. It was probably the scariest thing to do to anyone, they would shriek and tug their legs back hiding under their blankets. Screaming for their parents, or just for help. Ember couldn't help but laugh and cast a shadow to make them think someone was their intensifying their screams.

It took Ember almost an hour to get back to the lair, she was grinning from ear to ear when she walked out of the shadows to find Pitch hard at work ordering the fearlings around and pacing around the globe. She walked up and joined Pitch, but tried not to get too near a fearling. It was almost odd that Ember was afraid of fearlings, because she had them embedded in her soul.

Pitch almost seemed to jump when Ember suddenly appeared at his side. Ember tried her best to conceal a tiny smirk at his jumpiness. Pitch ordered a couple other fearlings to go to a city Ember had never heard of before and finally turned his attention over to Ember. Ember was just about to tell Pitch about her plan, but he cut her off before she had the chance.

"I see you have been improving upon your nightmares, you were able to make some of the lights become dim." Pitch motioned to the globe. Ember was surprised, she never thought that one little nightmare could make a kid doubt the existence of the Guardians. Fear really was a powerful thing. "You are turning into a portentous daughter." Pitch came to stand in front of Ember, towering over her.

"I-I guess, I've been trying to learn as much as possible." Ember stammered, she wasn't used to compliments.

Pitch grabbed her chin and made her look up at him. His long fingers were cold as ice, almost making Ember shiver. Ember looked up into his eyes, they were silver with a glimmer of gold. It made Ember shudder with fear, she couldn't help but be a little scared of him. Even though Ember thought of him as her father and loved him like one, he still had a threatening feeling to him that made Ember want to recoil into the shadows.

Pitch smirked at her shudder, he could tell she was scared of him. For good reason to. Pitch stared at Ember for a little longer, making Ember feel like he was reading her mind.

"Have you run into any trouble yet?" Pitch asked as he let go of Ember, letting her chin drop. Ember shuddered again at the feeling of his fingers slide off her chin, making her blood run cold.

Ember knew she should tell him about her plan, but she couldn't seem to form the words. So she just shook her head, she would tell him later. Ember prayed he couldn't see right through her.

But Pitch smiled and turned away from her. "Good."

Curiosity bubbled inside Ember, why was it so bad if she did run into the Guardians? she couldn't help herself. "Why? Is it bad if I do?" Ember tried to make her question seem nonchalant, but inside curiosity was seeping out of her. Pitch turned back to her and narrowed his eyes, making Ember take a tiny step backward.

"Not necessarily, the Guardians wouldn't try to hurt you unless you provoke them. But it would make them curious as to who you are, and once they find out they will try and destroy you. They could try to kill you, or even worse trap you in the shadows like they did me for so long." Pitch sneered at the thought of the Guardians. He loathed them for trapping him in the dark, making kids no longer believe in his existence. A scowl appeared over his face, clenching his hands into fists. The thought of the Guardians trying to trap Ember mad her almost mad, she would be damned if she let them get away with such a thing.

"I'd like to see them try." Ember growled, she did not mean to growl but she couldn't help herself. Pitch smirked at Ember's rage, he knew Ember would put up an interesting fight. But he would never allow such a thing to happen to Ember, he would not allow the Guardians to take her away from him.

They exchanged smirks and went back to work, ordering the fearlings around. Pitch even allowed Ember to have a tiny army of fearlings to send out and order around. Ember was finally in control of fearlings, she felt empowered. Things were working out nicely for a change.