(Present)

"Come my dear, I much enjoyed your look of fear over this expression..." Pitch's silky voice cooed. "It was so pleasant relishing in your fear earlier." His finger trailed along Crystal's jaw and she jerked away, continuing to shoot him her most heated glare. "Nothing to say? Usually they say something to that remark."

"Shove off." The words were hissed out before Crystal could stop herself from feeding him.

"Aaah...there it is. The snidy statement of one who is unwilling to let go." Pitch trailed his finger down her arm but she could only tense at his touch now. She was chained to a chair and could barely even move her fingers. If she had been able to move them...there was no way she would be here right now.

"Tell me...how do you make all those wonderful snowflakes?" Pitch asked nonchalantly walking behind the chair and putting his mouth next to her ear. "Do you create all of them with your hands?" Crystal tried to ignore his hot breath on her neck and clamped her eyes shut. "I bet your fingers must get tired..." Her blue eyes snapped open in fright as he grabbed her pointing finger. She locked gazes with Jack in his cage and couldn't help her lips quivering as the pressure increased on her index finger.

"Let's see if we can alleviate some of the tension, shall we?" There was a sickening 'snap!' and immediately Crystal tilted her head back and screamed at the shearing pain that shot up her arm.

Pitch 'tsked,' "We are going to have to do all of them..."

"N-no..." Crystal's eyes were wild with fear and anguish as she felt her next finger grabbed. She tried to twist out of chair. "NoooOOOO!" 'snap.'

"P-p-please...sto-Aaaaah!" 'snap.' Her body stopped fighting for freedom.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she screwed her eyes shut. She only spared a whimper to following two 'snaps.'

"We'll make the next hand go faster..." Pitch cooed and Crystal could only shoot him a terrified glance before all her fingers were grabbed on her other hand. She let out a shaky breath and then there was a resounding 'snap' that echoed through the room. A second of shock crossed her face before her answering scream reverberated through the shadows.

Then Crystal went limp. She wasn't unconscious yet, but her body could not handle any more suffering. Her frame quivered in pain as the chains were removed. Her blank expression was frozen on the ground, staring at nothing but the space. Her breath shakely came in and out of her dry throat. Her body was pulled from the chair and her limp, broken hands hit the ground. She only screwed her eyes shut and muffled a cry in her throat before she was dragged across the stone and then tossed into a cage. Chains creaked in agony. The shadows welcomed the torment.

(120 years ago)

Crystal sat at the mouth of her cave, knees pulled up and dull blue eyes watching the snow drift down. This was the snow she could watch and not grow uneasy at her idleness. These snowflakes were the undesigned sort. Merely shaped like plates and columns. The temperature was too cold to produce the more intricate shapes. She only had to worry about the snowflakes that were produced in a 15 degree block.

Her work had come down to a system. She created a variation and then ran it through all the other possibilities with just that one change. It was statistics. Numbers. The creativity of it was gone. It was hard to produce millions of snowflakes each snowfall, every year...and they all had to be unique? Come on! That was impossible!

Crystal dug her fingers into her scalp and closed her eyes so all she could feel was the cold wind and the pressure of her fingertips. Eventually her tension relaxed and she leaned her head back to gaze up at the moon.

"I guess that is why you made us immortals...to do the impossible, huh?" Her gaze focused on the snowflakes falling in front of the moon. "I just wish you'd give us a little help sometimes...or at least encouragement..." Her sigh floated some snowflakes away, "I can get out of this depression with my work but Jack..." Concerned blue eyes focused on the moon again, "He needs more help than I..." Her voice turned pleading, "He doesn't have constant work and...and he's confused and lost...and lonely...you've got to do something for him. You made him Jack Frost. You can at least show him who he was. That's not against the rules...at least it shouldn't be."

Crystal sighed again and gazed down at the snow filled mountains below. Her body felt weak and empty. Doing non-stop work for centuries had taken a heavy toll. She paid through these moments of depression that dragged her body and soul down. Her only cure: Jack Frost. It was a blessing from the moon that he could cheer her up and snap her out of these moods. He helped her realize what fun was again and how to just enjoy what she does. And what she did was make snowflakes. It just takes her a bit to re-realize that sometimes.

A snow crystal grew above her palm. It was a plate sized one, with an empty space in the middle (she couldn't help but make the intricate border though). Pulling a crystallized needle from her hair, she wrote: "Needing a bit of snow when available." The crystal was stored into memory and she closed her hand over it, reducing the snow crystal to a spec of ice and then releasing it into the wind.

Please review! Oh and I'm going to make this story 12ish chapters. That is if I don't stop tweaking it.