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Growing Pains	By : Kylee_Phoenix Category: +M through R > Rise of the Guardians Views: 3193 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians or The Guardians of Childhood Series, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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            When they arrived at the entrance to the cavern, Pitch's former home turned prison, they proceeded with caution. Jack thought for a moment.
            "Jamie, I need you to hang back. Follow me until we find Pitch, but don't let him know that you're with me. I want to approach him alone, let him think this is a one on one. We're not sure exactly what we're walking into. If it's a trap or an ambush, one of us needs to be out of range."
            Jamie pondered their plan, as Jack continued.
            "Sandy knows how sneaky Pitch is. He's on guard and waiting for our signal, just in case we need the others."
            Jack tossed him the small bag of dream-sand they'd been given for the distress call.
            “Jack, shouldn't we just call the others in now? He was hell to beat last time. Who knows what we could be walking into?”
            Jack thought on that, and he had to admit that Jamie had a point. As he peered down into the dark hole where once a rickety, rusted old bed frame stood, he hesitated and considered turning back.
            Something curled, unnoticed, around his brain, a thought which he took for his own, a whisper in the dark. . .
            What would the others think of what you've done? You should just handle this yourself.
            “I think it would be better if we just handled this ourselves,” he finally answered.
            Jamie frowned, unsure of this line of logic, but he was quickly pulled into his own thoughts.
            You feel a little sorry for Pitch, don't you? All he ever wanted was to be believed in, just like Jack. He's lonely and afraid down there, what harm could it do? How dangerous could he be?
            When Jamie looked up, Jack was waving a hand in front of his face, raising an eyebrow at him.
            "Where'd you go? Still with me here?"
            Jamie nodded.
            "Yeah sorry, just thinking."
            Jack laughed.
            "Yeah, well, don't think too hard. I think I was starting to see some smoke coming out of your ears."
            Jamie laughed and shoved him a little.
            "Shut up."
            Some things definitely had not changed between them, despite this new tension that grew thick again as they looked at each other in the dark cavern, the faint glow of Jack's staff the only light guiding them.
            "Stay sharp. If he pulls anything shady, signal Sandy and hide."
            Jamie smiled back and nodded.
            “I got your back. Go.”
            Jack made his way into the main chamber of the cavern, and he found Pitch waiting for him.
            "Hello, Jack," Pitch said. Instead of the dark, amused tone Jack had expected, the greeting sounded tired.
            The Nightmare King was shabby and gray, no longer the dark shade of his namesake, but he stood tall, some measure of pride still left in him. There was a great deal of pain in his eyes, and it was so sharp that it caught Jack off-guard.
            Jamie, who hid in the shadows, saw it too and those thoughts from before echoed through his head again. All he ever wanted was to be believed in, just like Jack. Pitch did seem broken down and repentant. . . but it could just be a trick. He waited for Jack's signal.
            "Hello, Pitch," Jack replied, “Let's get straight to the point. I've come here to - "
            Pitch held a hand up, smiling slightly, but there was no malice in it.
            "I know why you've come. I apologize for any pain I've caused either of you, but I needed your help."
            Jack remained unconvinced in the face of Pitch's contrition, and he could think of no reason he would ever want to help him.
            "Why use Jamie? Why send him. . . those images?"
            Jack sputtered and felt incredibly uncomfortable referring to the specifics of what Pitch had put in Jamie's dreams
            "It was the only way I could think of in my desperate state of mind. I knew the bond you had with Jamie was strong enough to bring you here in pursuit of his protection." Pitch averted his eyes, and he seemed ashamed. "The form the night mares took was locked. They came to Jamie exactly as they left me, for they were still my own, the tortures meant to subdue me in this cave."
            Jack was horrified by the idea that Pitch's nightmares were centered around him in such an intimate context. He was so stunned by it, that he sat down right where he was and had to take a moment to think it all through.
            Jamie's mind went wild at the revelation that his dreams had actually been Pitch's nightmares. He closed his eyes, recalling them for some clue that what Pitch had said was true. The beginning was always very pleasant, that desire which welled up in him at seeing Jack that way, but it never lasted. The end of the dreams, the part that had always caused him to wake up crying, with a pain in his heart that wouldn't let go, was that sharp sting of rejection.
            He realized now it was what had caused him to fear Jack, to shut him out. It's what had given him the idea that Jack would ever reject him in the first place, for that was not something Jamie would have thought on his own.
            Jack searched for words, anything he could ask or say that would bring more clarity to this situation. He'd had enough trouble adjusting to the idea that Jamie felt this way about him, but Pitch?
            "How did you. . . know what I looked like without clothes?"
            Jack asked the question nearly afraid to hear the answer.
            Pitch sighed.
            "Jack, I've been alive for a very long time. I have seen many things that even Sanderson Mansnoozie could only dream of." He looked up to a small hole in the roof of the cavern where moonlight shone through. "I was living long before Tsar Lunar was even a speck of stardust in his dear parents' eyes, creation rest their souls."
            Jack's brow furrowed.
            "Tsar Lunar?"
            Pitch nodded.
            "I believe you know him as The Man in the Moon."
            Jack had never actually heard the story of The Man in the Moon. To him, he was still just a mysterious figure who lived in the sky and called them together when there was trouble. The only time he had ever spoken to Jack was the night he'd given him his name, and there had been nothing more after that.
            "I can tell you still see me as nothing more than a villain, an evil to be defeated and locked away, but it is so much more complex than that, Jack. Things are often not as black and white as they may at first appear.”
            “The leader of the Guardians, calling you all in service to him, your god," he said mockingly, “Tsar Lunar has his own agenda.”
            Jack shook his head, disbelieving what Pitch was saying.
            "He saved me."
            "It's true that he brought you back to life with his magic, but did he ever ask you if it was what you wanted? After he brought you back he left you alone and confused with no memories of who you were to make sense of it all. He provided no explanation and offered no communication, just a name, for hundreds of years. He left you waiting, in agony and confusion, to understand who you were and why you had been chosen, without ever giving you a choice in the matter."
            Jack felt tears spring into his eyes at the reminder of the old pain. It was all true, but it angered him that Pitch would bring it up now, after he'd been so happy for years, after he'd moved on from it all.
            "How do you know what I felt?!"
            Pitch leaned down, placing his hand on Jack's shoulder gently in an effort to comfort him, but Jack shrugged it off violently.
            "Because I saw it all happen. I watched you often. The first time you met me was not the first time I ever saw you."
            Pitch looked into the shadows, directly into Jamie's eyes.
            "You can come out now, Jamie. Your friend needs your comfort."
            Jamie did not hesitate. If Pitch knew he was there, it was pointless to stay away. He took his place behind Jack and hugged him tightly, consoling him.
            A possibility they hadn't considered before occurred to Jamie. It seemed so obvious to him now, an explanation for why Pitch feared being alone in the dark.
            "You were human before you became Pitch Black, weren't you?"
            Pitch smiled slightly.
            "I was certainly someone different, though not exactly human. . . You see, I'm from another part of space, another planet. There are whole worlds out there that your kind on this planet have yet to explore, to even realize exist.”
            Jamie's eyes danced with wonder. When he was a boy he'd believed in a lot of amazing things which he had discovered were real, and now Pitch was telling him aliens were real too? He hardly knew what to ask first.
            "I was actually a kind of Guardian myself, then,” Pitch offered, seeing all the questions in Jamie's eyes. “I was charged with making sure the fearlings did not escape their prison. They are malevolent beings which live in darkness and whose sole purpose in creation is to spread fear and unhappiness. That's how I became Pitch Black. The fearlings possessed me, took over my body and trapped my soul. . ."
            Jamie marveled at the distinctly different person who stood before them.
            "So they were controlling you, but now you're fighting them off. How?"
            Pitch smiled.
            "I have Jack and the other Guardians, even you, Jamie, to thank for that. When I was banished to this place, I was held captive by my own fear, plagued by my nightmares. The fear crippled me for years, but after a time, I realized that there was more to me than what I had become. Hidden deep inside of me were memories of another life."
            Jamie's eyes widened, and he wanted very much to know the strange story of this man.
            "Who were you?"
            Pitch smiled genuinely, for he had never told his story to another living soul, and he was glad for the chance to tell it now.
            "I was Kozmotis Pitchiner, Lord High General of the Galaxies. I used to protect the worlds from all horrors and evils. While I was guarding the fearlings in the prison I mentioned before, something went horribly wrong. . . They escaped, some of them into me. . ."
            It pained him to remember these horrible events, but when he looked at Jamie, seeing the earnestness in his eyes as he encouraged him to go on, he knew he must finally tell someone what had happened to him.
            "I had a wife, Seraphina, and a daughter, Emily Jane. My daughter still lives, though she is no longer known by that name." He smiled a little sadly. "Now she goes by Mother Nature."
            Jack was listening intently now, recovered from his sadness and taken over by curiosity. This was all so much bigger than he had ever imagined. If he could bring himself to believe Pitch's story, then he had to at least have some pity for him.
            "I was trying to rescue her when they escaped." He closed his eyes and hunched over, putting his face in his hands. "Emily, they tricked me into believing that they had her in there with them. I would have done anything not to have her come to harm."
            Jamie nodded, understanding now.
            "They knew that. They used her against you."
            Pitch looked back up at them, his expression suddenly changed. He rose to his full height, the old wicked smile spreading across his face.
            "Yes, they knew, and combined with the heart of old Kozmotis, that honorable General of the Galaxies, we can now appeal to human emotion better than ever before."
- 5
- 6
- 7
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