Chapter Seven-The Forgotten Guardian

"Sandy, what're you talking about? Friend?!" Jamie whispered frantically, drawing a concerned frown from the younger boy. Sandy hopped down off his perch and wrapped his arms around Pitch's leg. The smile that was drawn from him was so sincere it almost knocked Jamie over in shock. Pitch picked the little boy up and let him snuggle into his coat.

"I know, things have been…rough, in the past. I don't expect you to believe or understand or sympathize with anything I'm about to tell you, but if you could let me say it, that would be more than I could ever hope for from anyone in this room, and I would be grateful." Pitch asked of him. His stomach was knotting up and Jamie's distrust and fear wasn't helping.

"Alright." Jamie nodded. The relief that flooded Pitch was almost too much for him to handle. Was Pitch really different?

"Thank you. The moon has been trying to reverse something that happened a long time ago. I was the first of the Guardians, actually held every one of the centers at once, but when…well…you don't need to know what exactly happened. I'll say that it wasn't pretty, and it…well…changed me. I was not the Boogeyman when I was chosen, I was a, well mostly nameless guardian, actually going by so many names I couldn't keep track of them. I was possessed by the darkness after…well it was an accident and it caused me to become who I was." He took a deep breath and realized he was kneading circles in the sleepy blonde's back which had caused him to conk out on his shoulder. "Again, I don't expect you to believe me, but I hope you can see that I'm not lying. I was…changed, and this was indeed a stunt Mani pulled to, well…fix it." Pitch explained. Jamie's eyes flitted to Jack's room and realization dawned on him.

"You mean, I KNEW IT!" He whooped.

"Jamie! Jeeze, you'll wake the neighborhood!" Aster mumbled in his 'sleep'.

"Sorry!" Jamie whispered, wide-eyed and tensed up, waiting for someone else to wake up. When no one did Pitch relaxed and nodded to the kitchen, which was a little farther from the sleeping crowd.

"So, you'd already guessed that they were the guardians?" Pitch asked.

"Yeah, I knew it was Jack, it had to be! It was weird though, cause he didn't remember." Jamie half-whined.

"That is because Mani wanted him to believe the illusion. He has, I believe, a set of false memories." Pitch explained. He was beginning to relax as Jamie's believe skyrocketed. He knew that Sandy would have sensed the danger by now, and for once the lack of fear in the boy's eyes was welcome beyond anything the old guardian could hope for.

"So…do they all have fake memories?" He asked. Pitch nodded. "So…why were you here?" He asked, rightfully suspicious in Pitch's opinion.

"I need to maintain belief in them and for that I need Sandy's magic. He can't control its core anymore so I'm going to direct the inevitable remnants that escape. Like this." Pitch held out a hand, not too far as he needed to hold the boy, and a strand snaked its way out and split up to find all the children at once. Jamie's face lit up.

"What about the pole? And the teeth? And Easter?" He asked excitedly.

"The yeti can run the place surprisingly well, baby tooth is in charge of the faries and frankly it's not close to Easter at all. I'm hoping we can reverse this before that comes around anyway." He qualified.

"Well how are you gonna do that?" He asked.

"Good question." Pitch grinned uncomfortably, and playfully. It was throwing Jamie for a loop. How could he be so different so easily and so soon? It was giving him a headache. "Don't worry, I'll figure it out. Can you do me a favor though?" He asked, kneeling down to his eye-level.

"Sure." Jamie nodded, the way Pitch was acting he had no problem trusting him, there was something in his eyes, his skin, his mannerisms that had change. He was gentler and somehow more apologetic. If he's not lying, he deserves a chance.

"Can you keep those five out of trouble? They have this way of worming themselves into tight spots and I need you to keep an eye on them. Don't tell them about it though, it's a secret." Pitch cautioned as seriously as he could. Jamie nodded in promise. "Good. Here, take this crazy kid." Pitch teased, handing Sandy to him.

"Of course!" Jamie smiled confidently. Suddenly he wasn't so skeptical. Pitch might have been bad before, and it was definitely not something he'd put past pitch to try this to trick him, but he had looked into his eyes. Instead of the sickly yellow-ish grey-gold they had been before they were now vibrant, shining, clear silver. It was actually stunning. When Jamie looked there, he hadn't found a hint of treachery, or lies. Instead there was fondness, and amusement, and warmth. The way Sandy's magic responded readily to him had sealed the deal. Pitch had changed.

As he settled back down to sleep with Sandy under his arms the realization of who was snuggled up to him hit him like a brick. He had the most outrageous dreams after that and he knew he would never forget about that for as long as he lived. Through the next few months Jack worked, went to school, took care of the others. It was pretty standard, nothing out of the ordinary other than Sandy insisting that he had made a friend named Pitch that Jack couldn't see and everyone having wonderful, shared dreams.

Back at the pole Pitch had set up a sort of base camp in the globe room. It had taken a while but soon everyone was use to this arrangement and he was able to keep everything moving between visits to Jack's home where he worked on getting the pint-sized guardians to believe in themselves. If it weren't so important Pitch would probably have laughed at the irony almost daily. So far only Sandy believed, which wasn't a shock.

"Mani, what on earth am I going to do? You've really gotten yourself into a pickle this time." Pitch mused as he went back out the door to do all things dream related. Sometimes a kid needed a nip in the bud to scare them straight and sometimes they needed to be reminded of life's beauty. It was now his job to do both. He could barely believe it, and Mani had brought all this down himself. "What are we going to do?" He had read up on their problem. They needed each guardian to believe in themselves, as in telling them to believe in themselves but not who they are, and then get them to open the dais, returning them to normal. Promising, but…

"It can be done, my son."

Sorry again, it's been forever! Also this is really short, sorry. On the upside it's almost finals week so I'll be done with all this madness and I can write full time around practice, sleeping, and eating. That means much, much more to read! Either that, or I'll write and write and write, then post it all at once. As always let me know what you think, thanks for reading and you are all wonderful people! :)