The wind whistled through his hair as he crouched down. His staff creaked under his feet, and he leaned ever so slightly to the side to correct his balance. Straight up from the ground it stood, with him sitting on the top of the crook.

The wind pulled at his clothes, urging and pleading for him to go back, but he ignored it. His face was set forward, staring intently at the darkness of the woods. The wind tried again, biting his face and poking his eyes. But he only blinked a few times and wrinkled his nose. With a mournful sigh, the wind gave up.

The shadow had moved. Jack's gaze remained unaltered, but the wind died down to a stand still. His breath hitched in his throat and every hair on his neck stood up, but he forced his mind to focus. "Hello, Jack.." the voice said in a smooth, earthy tone.

Jack flinched, his heartbeat rising to incredible speeds as every muscle in his thin body screamed for him to run. But his will was more powerful than his fear. "Hey, Pitch."

At the mention of his name, the shadow grew in confidence, slinking its way from the darkness and shaping into the form of a thin, pale, darkly clothed man. His yellow eyes pierced into Jack's icy blue. "Miss me?"

Jack shook his head. "Not at all, Pitch. What are you doing, roaming about?"

"I could ask the same of you. Doesn't everyone have their own right to taking a walk in the eventide?" His hand lazily rolled out in gesture.

"Not if they tried to take over the entire world. Most people would want those kind of folk locked up and disabled, if not dead."

"And you know everything about being unwanted, don't you?" He grinned maliciously.

Jack's eyes hardened. "What do you want, Pitch?"

He chuckled. "To know what you were doing in this part of the world during this part of the day?"

He sighed. "Fine. It's my pond. I go here to think. Then I heard a rustle in the woods, smelled the stench of pitch black, and waited for you to show your ugly mug."

Pitch's eyes dulled. "To find out what I was doing, no doubt?"

"We're going in circles," Jack continued to glare.

"Ah ha, but you were always one for games. No matter, I'll give it to you straight." He put his hands together and paused before stating nonchalantly, "Venia has to die."

His chest heaved as if he had been shot. "No.."

"Yes, I'm afraid so, Jackie," Pitch's face lowered in mock sympathy.

"How did you know about her?"he demanded.

Pitch huffed, "She may be new but she's not unknown, Jack. Especially by important spirits like me who have the power to know almost everything that goes on."

"Which makes your defeat several years ago all that more pathetic, doesn't it?" Jack smirked.

The evil eyes grew firm. "Such things you will regret before too long."

"You flippin' piece of crap! You'll DIE before you touch her!" Jack dropped to the ground and held his staff up in attack mode.

Pitch seemed unfazed. "Which it will be hard to defend her when you don't even know where she is!" He laughed, as Jack's eyes weakened. "And since when did you care so much?"

He felt the warm grow in his frozen cheeks. "I DO have a heart, you know."

"Oh, is someone developing feelings?" Pitched smirked, holding his hands over his heart.

"NO!" Jacked snapped, surprise lining his face. "I just care about people. And don't mention that again, or I'll beat the crap out of you!"

"Calm down, boy!" Pitch ordered with a stern frown. "And pay attention."

Jack's eyes grew in increased fear as the darkness began circling him, his staff lowering slightly. "You, Jackie, can live if you join my side," the dark spirit hissed.

Jack smirked, pointing his staff in the direction of the voice. "That's always your story! And one that you know to the ending to very well. 'And Jack Frost didn't join, The End'."

He sounded disappointed. "Because you don't know what all you can really do! In fact, you simply can't fight who you really are."

Although told that before, there was something about that last part of Pitch's comment that sounded so bold and solid. As if he couldn't buck against it so quickly as he wanted to. Instead it slowed his thinking, and stifled his anger. Jack paused, unwillingly lowering his staff. "What do you mean?"

Pitch turned to face the woods, the blackness of his robe curling down at the snow into thin air. "You may have a heart, Jack. But it's a cold one."

At that, he lost it. "SHUT UP!" Jack thundered, raising his staff over his head and shooting sharp pieces of ice.

Pitch blinked and ducked from the icy flame, stepping to the left to dodge another attack, and running backwards with his palms held out. "Jack, you can't fight it! It's pointless!"

Anger welled in his chest, creating an energy that swelled and grew as it transferred to his staff. "I said, SHUT UP!"

Pitch again leapt out of the way just in time, a spray from the snow dotting his black apparel. Jack jumped in the air, throwing a punch at his face, knocking Pitch sideways into a tree. Jack threw him up against it, landing another punch at

Pitch's jaw. He panted, desperately trying block the next blow. "Jack, WHY do you think you killed that girl? A young woman who you didn't even know her name!"

The boy's eyes widened as the staff stopped in mid-air over Pitch's head. It suddenly hit him like a wave of ice water: he didn't know her name. One hand lost the grip on his staff as he took a step back, the weapon wobbling in his hand. "How did you know about that?"

Pitch grinned yellow teeth, his eyes glowing. "Aside from knowing almost everything, I drank from the rich fear that flowed from her body when you pulled her from the water."

Tears gathered in Jack's eyes, but he blinked them off, regaining his step and raising his staff. He couldn't show Pitch that he was weak. He held it up to Pitch's neck. "You sick, twisted-."

"Nah uh uh! You've no room to talk. You are no better." Jack frowned, pressing the edge of the wood into his throat. Pitch gave a nervous chuckle, pressing himself further back into the tree."Yes, why, just look at you right now!"

Pitch hadn't tried to attack him. Well.. physically anyway, and there was no one else around in the crisp night air. The moon shone down as a light over the spot where Jack had Pitch against a tree, ramming his weapon into his throat. So basically, Pitch was playing the victim. Jack exhaled, "This is different, Pitch. You're evil."

"So, you're saying that I'm the bad guy, and you're the good guy?" a smile tugged the corners of his mouth.

"Yup." His hold didn't weaken.

"You might want to rethink that closely," Pitch drawled, his eyes met Jack's. Those eyes... eyes that spoke of torture and pain, that promised a tantalizing fear. He saw them flash green, the look of emotionless horror appear as they took Jack to a couple of nights ago in a meadow. They remained still and unblinking, glossing over in an unnatural position that gazed right past Jack. The emerald eyes stared in death, the cold slowly cresting the line of a black brow. Conviction seeped into the younger man's heart as he crumbled at Pitch's feet, sobbing into his hands.

The dark spirit's eyes returned to their yellow color, looking down at the boy. A long thin hand stroked his white tuffs of hair. "There, there Jack. It's simply who you are. You couldn't help yourself. It wasn't an accident, it was your nature. You're cold and hard... How could you help it?"

Sobs racked his body. Jack felt his stomach lurch as he rolled forward, blindly swatting Pitch's hand off his head. "Just go away," he whimpered.

"But Jack," his throat contained a tone of complete confidence. "You belong in the darkness. Cold and loneliness, it goes together with it. You need to stop fighting the Moon's purpose for you."

He felt the tears continue to stream. "But why was I chosen then?" Jack blurted, his lip quivering. "Why was I elected as a Guardian if my purpose is to destroy like you?"

Pitch's eyes turned to the side. "I was once like you, Jack... Confused, lonely, guilty. I thought I had found my purpose, but only when I allowed the darkness to completely overtake my soul..." His eyes glistened in excitement. "Then, THEN did I realize who I was MEANT to be. Feared by everyone as the Nightmare King! It just took me a while to find that out."

Jack spit phlegm from his mouth, coughing and wheezing in short breaths. "Well, what about Bunnymund? And North?... Tooth, and Sandy? Jamie? They see me as one."

"No, they take advantage of you as one," Pitch spat, leaning down to Jack's ear. "To them, you're just an extra hand, another weapon against me."

Jack curled into himself, his sweatshirt wet with the snow. So many thoughts swirled in his mind, he gave up trying to give them any order. He heard Pitch sneer before feeling something hard dent into his stomach. The boy cried out as Pitch kicked him, covering his ears from his own screams. All this humiliation for so many years.. He felt a few of the last strands of his will to fight break loose as Pitch then shuffled into the woods.

"Think about it, Frost!" Pitch's words rose above the sound of his scooting over the snow. "Oh and one more thing.." Jack winced, covering his head with his arms to brace for some kind of attack. Pitch laughed at the boy's attempts. "Sarah Hopwood. That was her name." His voice lingered as it echoed his departure.

It was several hours of silence before the wind came rushing to the teen, swirling around him and peering for his face. Jack just laid there, relishing the simple act of breathing in and out. A hand stretched from clutching his abdomen, checking to see if his staff still lay there beside him. It did. Sighing, his eyes cracked open.

Sunlight had eaten up the darkness. With the night now over, Jack wearily got to his feet, not wanting to risk any chances of being found or seen. He couldn't afford to let anyone see him like this, let alone an innocent child wandering around. The repercussions would be unbearable, the child's hope having crumbled at the sight of a Guardian beaten into the snow. Then he remembered..

He wasn't even a true Guardian.

Shutting his eyes against the grief that threatened to drown him, Jack whispered for the wind to take him away. The swell in his chest choked him as he flew, but he pressed onward. Regardless of who he was or what he was, Venia was in danger. And as long as he was going to fight with his remaining strength against the darkness that surrounded his soul... He needed to find Venia. His head throbbed.

He couldn't afford to fail again.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*G*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Again, I don't own anything. And now we have some action to transpire in the near future. I think I imagine Jack to be very dangerous when ticked off. Judging from the scene where he and Pitch throw a couple hard ones at each other, that might not be far off. I dunno, PM me if you think I'm off.

Please review? Please? :) With a cherry on top?