Chapter 12 – Pitch's Layer

Warning: slight abuse, injury descriptions.

Disclaimer:I do not own Rise of the Guardians or any of the characters, or the robin rhythm.

This is set before the Rise of the Guardians film and will contain spoilers if you haven't already seen the film.

In a small town, in the middle of nowhere, a hooded figure sat out in the cold on a window ledge and watched a heart filled scene as a mother tucked her young child into his bed, and kissed his forehead to chase away the nightmares. The mother called the child's covers up to his chin and gently placed a kiss on his forehead. She smiled at her son's sleepy expression and whispered in his ear.

"Sleep well. Just remember, the Guardians are watching over you" The child smiled sleepily and buried his head to his pillow. The mother smiled at her child's antics before she slowly and quietly left the room, making sure to leave the door open a touch in case she needed to check on him. The dark figure sat on the window ledge could only watch on in envy at the touching scene. This, to a regular family, was a normal occurrence but to the person on the ledge it would only ever be a dream, a wish. The person pulled the hood of his hoody further down so his frosty blue eyes were now shrouded by darkness.

Unable to watch the warm scene any longer, the boy slowly floated away from the windowsill to land on a house roof across the road. Gently clutching his wooden staff, the boy curled up against a brick chimney and began thinking over the events which had led to this. Jack was so confused, he didn't know whether to accept Pitch's offer or not. At first thing is arms from his knees Jack looked down at his now flawless hands which had previously been covered in cuts and bruises.

Rotating them, he observed their miraculous recovery and remembered how Pitch had healed them as if he was creating a simple snowflake by using his magic black sand. Jack let out a large sigh and tucked his hands into his chest and began pondering Pitch's offer. The night met King had offered Jack everything he had ever wanted. He had offered the teen family, a place to call home and also a place where he could be safe. Jack was terrified North would come back and attack him again if the teen ever ran into the large Russian man which made Pitch's offer seem like a miracle.

However Jack's brief time spent with Bunnymund made him reconsider and doubt Pitch's proposal for the large rabbit had taken Jack in and cared for him when he was injured, and because the short time the pair had spent together was the closest Jack had never been to finding a real home. While in Pitch's presence, Jack had been nervous and frightened but when in the presence of the pooka Jack had felt at ease and relaxed.

Jack sighed once again, closed his eyes and lent his head back against the brick chimney. All of this thinking was beginning to give Jack and nasty headache and he was suddenly feeling tired. This offer could be his only chance that gaining a real family but then again he would lose the three guardians he had become close to in the last few days. Opening his frosty eyes he looked up at the large full moon staring down at him

"What should I do?" Jack whispered out not expecting an answer from the silent man in the moon. Sighing once again Jack unwrapped his hands and began gazing down at them of wonder. Should he accept Pitch's offer at a family. To a man who made him uneasy but healed him and promised to protect him. Or should he jeopardise this and take his chances with three people who were close friends to the man who had attacked him. The young immortal didn't know what to do. With one last sigh he allowed his eyes to drift shut and he fell into a restless slumber.

Bunnymund and the Sandman had circled the cage several times but could not see or find a door for the cage currently containing North. Upon discovering no available exit to the metal prison Bunnymund had immediately thrown his large gray paws at one of the weak looking bars in an attempt to break it, only to be thrown backwards where he lay flat on the floor. Sandy had also attempted to break into the metal cage using his dream sand but for some reason as soon as his magic yellow sand touched the metal it turned black and quickly fell to the floor. All three guardians were confused at this and bunny realised it was similar to the sand that the pretend North had been made from at the North Pole.

"North mate, how long have you been here?" Bunnymund asked in a curious and hopeful voice for he was praying to the man in the moon that North had been locked inside this cage a week ago when Jack was attacked. The large Russian let out a sigh and raised a beefy hand to rub his eyes.

"I have been here for around three days. I think. Time is very hard to track when you're sat in the darkness" North absently scratched his cheek as he stared round the shadowy room, missing the furious look Bunnymund shot him. The large rabbit slowly rose from the floor and walked towards the large metal cage. Standing at the bars he stared down at the Russian man with hatred and fire in his eyes. With a solemn voice he asked.

"Were you the one to attack Jack Frost?" The Russian's eyes quickly snapped to the rabbit's due to the heated tone of voice and an angry look descended upon the large man's face. North knew instantly that the Easter bunny would be on Jack sighed rather than his own so using the metal bars for support, North stood up and walked towards Bunnymund. Once the two Guardians were face to face he answered.

"Yes. Bunny he destroyed half of my store room 7 weeks before Christmas. How would you like it if somebody came and destroyed all of your egg's the day before Easter? I only have 6 weeks complete half a year's worth of work" Bunnymund's green eyes widened in shock at the Russians word's and he took a step away, shaking his head as he did so.

"So you attacked him?" Bunny looked down at the yellow Sandman standing beside him and saw he was wearing a similarly shocked and disgusted expression.

"So what. He is just a silly little winter spirit. He means nothing" is North's booming voice echoed throughout the empty expanse and bunny found himself feeling horrified.

"You're wrong mate" the large rabbit replied. North frowned and looked from Bunnymund to Sandy disapprovingly.

"What do you mean? I have done nothing wrong" at this remark Bunnymund's blood began to boil and he clenched his fists in frustration. Taking a step closer to the large Russian man he glared spat out.

"How dare you. You never attack a child. You took an oath to always protect children. Jack may be bloody pain but he's still a child" the rabbit's glare only intensified when the large Russian man remained quiet. Suddenly from the other side of the room a dark and chilling chuckle echoed out. The grey bunny and the yellow Sandman turned in horror to see pitch slowly clapping his hands, an eerie grin upon his face.

"I have to say this is very very exciting. Three of the big four gathered in one place and in my home, I'm a little starstruck" Bunnymund stared blankly at the Shadow King. He felt Sandy move by his side and quickly shot out a large grey paw to keep the little man from attacking the grey skinned figure. Seeing this movement Pitch let out a full-faced smirk to reveal his crooked yellow teeth.

"Don't hold him back on my account" Pitch let out another chuckle which made Bunnymund's grey fur stand on edge. It was obvious Pitch was up to something, now it was just a case of finding out what. The large rabbit took a deep breath in attempt to calm himself so he would attack the tall, skinny, dark shrouded man in front of him. After all North was still trapped in the cage that only pitch could access.

"You dirty stinking ratbag. I should have known this was because you. What do you want?" The large pooka snarled at the boogie man which made Pitch stand up straight and glared with his beady yellow eyes at the three guardians.

"Maybe I want to be believed in, I'm tired of hiding under beds. I want a family. Somebody to call my own" the nightmare King snarled his response at the guardians but bunny only smirked in response.

"Well that ain't happening mate. No one's been afraid of you since the dark ages" Pitch stopped glaring and smiled as if he was deep in a happy thought which made Bunnymund look at him questioningly.

"Oh the dark ages, everybody frightened, miserable, such happy times for me. Oh the power I wielded but then the man in the moon chose you to replace my fear with wonder and light. Lifting their hearts and giving them hope. Meanwhile everybody wrote me off as a bad dream, oh there's nothing to be afraid of, there's no such thing as the boogie man. But that's all about to change" Bunny looked uncertainly at the Shadow King. Something was wrong, usually pitch would be moving around the room, hiding in the shadows but for some reason he was not moving from the spot. It was then Bunnymund noticed a small flash of movement coming from behind Pitch.

"What do you mean?" Pitch's eerie smile came back full force.

"Wouldn't you like to know. I might as well tell you. The last time you defeated me I was left completely powerless, weak. But then out of nowhere my powers suddenly returned full force. And it was all due to a child. A powerful child was scared, they were frightened of what lurked in the dark and that was all it took. Would you like to see who gave me back my powers?" the Shadow King replied. Pitch then looked behind him, before stepping to one side to reveal a motionless Jack Frost.

PLEASE READ! Don't skip the authors note at the end like I usually do!

I apologise for the bad grammar. I'm quite badly dyslexic and struggle with my grammar and spelling despite my love for writing. So please no nasty reviews.

Hello everybody. I am back. My laptop came back from the repair shop three days ago with all my original notes.

Thank you for all the reviews. I'm hoping this chapter has lived up to your expectations and I'm sorry it has taken so long. Thank you for not giving up on me, especially AyameKitsune who has been messaging me every few days for an update. Not sure when the next update will be. Not even sure what's going to happen. I could really use some ideas!

I'm glad I was able to update in anticipation for the Rise of the Guardians DVD which is released tomorrow in the UK!

One more thing, this is the longest thing/story/anything I have ever written and is now over 20,000 words long and consists of 50 pages!

Please review and feel free to check out my new story Iron Scales (A Hp/Iron Man crossover)

GeorgieGirl999 x