It was a full moon that night and the young Guardian of Fun gazed up at the nights' sky from his position in the tree he was sat in. Jack was alone by his lake as he had been for some time already. He cared for the other Guardians, Jack really did, but he just couldn't be around them right now. After he'd started to try and convince them that fear must have its place in the world, it had taken a while for them to even begin to consider to contemplate the idea.

Then they'd found Pitch a few weeks ago, fading away in the darkness of the eerie French Catacombs, and Jack thought that they'd see that they needed to help the Nightmare King. Bunny was still dead set against it, North was uncertain, Tooth was reluctant, but Sandy, having actually helped Pitch keep his Nightmare horse alive, was on Jack's side. The Sandman was the oldest of the Guardians and he knew, however much he was wary of the idea, that the world needed fear. It was necessary for children to have dear in their lives as much as they needed belief.

Jack wanted to know where the Nightmare King had come from, he wanted to know whether MiM had created him or not, but the Guardians wouldn't tell him a thing and it was beginning to frustrate him. He knew that Pitch could also ever say a single word on the subject and that left Jack no other way of finding out the truth. It wasn't as though MiM would talk to him was it? MiM never spoke to him, even if he did mean well.

"Why won't they just tell me?" Jack spoke quietly as he stared up at the moon, "Is it that bad?"

There was no answer and Jack sighed as he pulled his knees up close to his chin as he sighed deeply. "Yeah...that's what I thought..." he muttered sadly, turning away from the moon. He just wanted to know the truth, but no one was prepared to tell him, it seemed, and time only worsened his curiosity.

Just then, though, the light from the moon started to twinkle and glitter as the rays landed on Jack's small form. The pale blue and silver light grew brighter and brighter until it took over the entire skyline and Jack, startled, covered his eyes after trying to look at the light. It hurt his eyes just to look at it. Then, everything started to fade into the white lit and Jack felt himself falling out of the tree and into nothingness.

When he could finally begin to see again, Jack could make out a large room. It was made of a mix of both grey stone and dark wood and carved into both were beautiful patterns which Jack assumed was a form of writing or simply decoration, which he'd never seen before. There were four main pillars which formed medieval styled archways leading up to a vaulted ceiling where the light shone dimly through the small, mullioned windows. The smell of the dust and the damp in the room was palpable in the complete and utter silence.

Jack could hear his feet patting on the stone slabs beneath him as he moved in a slow circle, brandishing his staff and turning his head with narrowed eyes in search of danger. When he turned around however his mouth fell agape and he was suddenly frozen to the spot.

Right there in front of him was something which appeared to be a large cage with bars of shining silver covered on the same patterns as was on the walls and Jack gasped in shock and horror. From inside the total darkness of this cage were yellow eyes which glared back at him in anger and he heard hissing noises despite the fact that he couldn't see any mouths to make them.

"...Let us out..." he heard a deep, eerie voice say from inside the cage.

"What the..." Jack said quietly to himself as he backed away. As he moved he suddenly heard something sigh and Jack jumped again, expecting to be attacked he looked around quickly.

Then Jack saw him; a pale man sitting at the far end of the room in a throne which had clearly once been painted and decorated in gold but which was now worn and pealing away into nothing. The man was still and silent as the grave as he stared across the room right through Jack as though the boy was invisible. He was starting directly at the caged shadows with an expression of deepest loathing and worn determination. There seemed to be some thing familiar about the man, but the young Guardian couldn't quite put his finger on it. He didn't understand why MiM had decided to show him this; why show him an image of a man alone in a strange room with a cage or a box of weird shadows?

Jack stared curiously at the lone man sat on the throne; he looked sad, tired, and so very, very lonely. He was wearing golden armour which had seen better days and there seemed to be cobwebs and dust clinging to the ornate breastplate, arm guards and even from his unpolished boots.

"Erm...hi...can you tell me where I...hello? I said, can you..." Jack said but the nameless man didn't even blink or bat an eyelid at the sudden appearance of the young Guardian right in front of him. Jack waved his hand and his staff in an attempt to gain the man's attention but it failed, "Great...I'm invisible again..." he muttered.

"...Release us..." cried the same strange voices and Jack flinched. The man at the far end of the room though didn't even seem to care.

"No," the man spoke, clearly very bored. He sounded as though he'd said that a lot and now he was just on automatic repeat.

"You must let us out, General," the voices said.

"No," the man repeated.

"We have something of yours..." the whisper faded away, making way for the sound of a frightened young girl, crying from inside the cage.

"...Father..." a quiet voice gently echoed.

The man slowly lifted his head and his eyes widened in shock as the voice continued, "Father...please help me..."

"It's not...possible..." whispered the man as he began to sit up in his throne.

"Please...I'm so scared...please don't leave me here...it's so dark...they're so scary..."

"No..." the man shook his head uncertainly, "It can't be real...I won't..."

"ARHHHHHHH!" the girl screamed and the man shot up and ran across the room to the strange looking cage.

"How dare you?!" he cried, "Release her at once!"

"No...stop...please...don't..." the girl screamed and the man growled fiercely.

"I command you to release the girl! Give back my daughter!" he yelled but nothing happened. Then, he gripped the bars of the cage so tightly his knuckles turned white and he pulled at the bars, his muscles straining as he tried and tried to break into the cage. He unsheathed a beautiful silver sword from his belt and he hacked at the bars with great strength which Jack wouldn't've though him previously capable of.

"Father..." the girl cried and Jack ran forwards and made to smash open the cage to release the child but his attack of ice went right through it.

"Let. Her. Go!" the man yelled with each swing of his sword.

Jack tried once more, using his staff as a sword he swung at the cage but he fell straight through it and back into he centre of the room. He growled in frustration as he tried again and again and again, all to no avail.

Finally the bars were broken and a loud explosion of a thousand deep voices started laughing and growling as the darkness seeped from the remains of the cage. Like a cat before attacking, the blackness seemed to stand on its hind legs in a show of power before it swarmed right at the General.

Jack could only watch as the man was swallowed by the shadows which had already blocked out what little light there was in the room, and the golden armour of the soldier was polluted by blackness. The ornate, and beautiful sword which he'd so admired fell almost in slow motion from the man's hand, finally landing with a resounding clatter of steel on stone. And then the General screamed.

The dark shadows eclipsed the whole room and they slithered along the ground and the walls, and the pillars and finally the ceiling. Everything was plunged into total darkness...into pitch blackness.

Jack heard the hoarse screams continue as the wind whipped up around him and the darkness swirled like a tornado but once the shadows cleared, Jack was able to understand why MiM had decided to show him this. The person standing before him was no longer a nameless man in gold; it was Pitch Black the Nightmare King. In his velvet like black robe and greying skin he wore an amused expression on his pale face. Gone was the tired determination of the General in gold, here was the darkness of the Nightmare King.

The young Guardian couldn't help but feel sorry for Pitch as the faceless shadows encircled the Boogeyman, quietly whispering to him all of their evil plans. Jack couldn't hear what they said but he had a damn good idea. Pitch then laughed cruelly and took off into the shadows as Jack had seen him do before, but the young Guardian heard a quiet 'clatter' and he looked down to see a small, golden locket which fallen open. He knelt down to see what was inside and he saw an elegant image of a beautiful young girl with long hair and a kind smile staring motionlessly back at him.

He looked around the deserted room sight with the locket still clutched in his hand, when the whole scene faded into darkness and Jack felt himself floating in nothingness, the locket now gone from his hand inexplicably.

Jack saw flashes of planets dying and of great stars fading away, he saw a golden world crumble into nothing, and he heard children crying as some slowly faded into nightmare sand. It was all extremely terrifying and yet it was all so very pitiful. Every now and then, Jack would see Pitch glance curiously at a child, or stop and think about what he was doing, but he always listened to the whispers of the Nightmares and the Fearlings, the Dream Pirates or the Nightmare men. He saw the countless fierce battles like the terrible one against the Pookas which ended in their almost total extinction.

He saw the birth of the child who would become MiM and what Pitch did to him.

He saw the flying elephants of Punjam Hy Loo and Pitch's plan to remove what remained of his humanity, which was thwarted by the Guardians. He felt the stillness and isolation and pain that Pitch felt when he was imprisoned after being pierced through the heart with a gleaming blade, and then the elation at being free after so many centuries. Pitch's only thoughts then were of revenge and hatred and he drew power from the nightmares of children again and again and again.

Jack closed his eyes against the nightmares and he breathed deeply and then...he was back by his lake again. There was no more flashes of light, only the moon and the stars were shining and there was no Nightmares around him. He was sat in the same tree he'd been in before and Jack rubbed his eyes in confusion. That had been one wild ride. Had it all been real? It had to be real? Why would MiM lie? Why hadn't the Guardians told him all of that? Didn't he have a right to know? Jack couldn't believe they'd kept all of that from him. He needed to have a talk with them about teamwork. Or perhaps...he could go talk to Pitch himself about it.

The dark hole in the ground, above which there had once been on old wooden bed - one of many which lead to Pitch's caves, was close to Jack's lake, in fact it was closer than North's place. Although it probably wasn't a very good idea...it was probably a very, very, very bad idea. Maybe one of the worst he'd had this century, actually, but what else was he going to do? Just sit there and ponder everything? That certainly wouldn't help anything, or anyone.

Without another thought, Jack jumped from the tree and headed straight for Pitch's lair. He leapt down the small hole and fell forever, deeper and deeper into the ground until he finally hit the bottom. Then he walked slowly in the darkness, careful to be very quiet, he made his way to the main cavern which held the dark globe. The empty changes hanging from the ceiling creaked quietly and as usual, the place was shrouded in shadows.

He could see Pitch standing there beside the globe with Onyx at his side and suddenly the Nightmare King spoke without turning around, "Go away, Frost," he sighed.

"...What happened to her?" Jack asked bravely, flying into the dark, open space.

"Who?" Pitch frowned in confusion.

"The girl...your daughter..."

"...What are you talking about?" he demanded weakly.

"She was stuck in the cage...well, she wasn't really but I thought she was...and you did too...so you opened it and then you..."

"Daughter?" Pitch repeated curiously.

"Yeah...you...you do remember...don't you?"

"How do you know all this?"

"Erm...the Man in the Moon...sort of...showed me..."

"That foolish child," the Nightmare King sneered.

"Well...erm...so...so what did happen?" Jack asked.

"Why don't you go and ask your friends instead of bothering me?" Pitch growled and turned away into the shadows.

"They won't tell me...they wouldn't tell me anything...but...you do remember...right?"

"What does it matter?" the shadowed man said simply, "You should leave; you're not wanted here."

"No...'cos if you forgot it all...I did too...we're the same...maybe I can help you, maybe Tooth can..."

"Get out!" Pitch growled and suddenly, Jack was attacked by a furious Onyx who charged at him from the darkness.

Jack tried to defend himself without hurting the Nightmare horse, knowing how much it meant to Pitch he didn't want to anger the man any further. So he used simple but effective evade tactics to hopefully get it of his back.

"Pitch!" Jack yelled, "Stop!" he cried, but the Nightmare horse, despite its weakness, continued to hound him, so Jack tried a different tactic. "You were a General, weren't you?" he asked as he leapt off a stalagmite. "You only let those things out because you thought they had your daughter...what was her name?"

"None of your business," Pitch hissed. He tried to focus on answering the question but he just couldn't think. He couldn't remember anything about her, and he'd even forgotten, until now, that he'd had a child on the first place. It was so easy to forget things when he was this weak and when he was so fuelled by revenge.

Everything was suddenly unimportant as he racked his brain in search of her face; the face of the most important person in the universe, and he'd simply forgotten it. How could he have done that? How could he not remember?

The sympathy that Jack felt was only increasing despite knowing all the evil that Pitch was responsible for, because he too had done some bad things when he'd been trying to control his powers, and he'd made so many bad storms because he hadn't succeeded...granted it wasn't half as bad, but still.

"You forgot her...didn't you?" Jack asked him.

"...I..." Pitch said to himself. He was far to preoccupied by this to attack the Guardian, which he would've done before with gusto had it not been for the memories.

"You loved her."

"Enough!"

"You did, I saw you!" Jack continued, "You were tricked!"

"And you think that I'm still under their control?" Pitch chuckled, "You think there is a good man in here somewhere who needs your help; no, no, I am in control, they obey me now. I am not brainwashed, Frost. I am who I am, do not misinterpret the past because you pity me," he hissed out the word 'pity' as though he felt nothing but contempt for it.

"I'm not!" Jack said, "I'm trying to help you, not whoever you were before."

"I'm sure," the Nightmare King scoffed, "But your 'help' is not wanted or required. Now kindly, leave or I will make you."

"...Fine," Jack sighed, "I just wanted you to know...I don't think she'd blame you," he finished before flying back the way he came and out into the open air.

Pitch stroked Onyx's mane as she nuzzled against him as he continued to search for the name of the girl with the long dark hair and beautiful, kind eyes. He looked at his Nightmare horse and she glanced curiosity back, intrigued by her master's moment of weak curiosity, but unlike many other of Pitch's minions, she didn't take advantage of it. But it was very difficult not to.

Jack flew as fast as he could, soaring through the cold winds as he made his way to North's workshop; he was anxious to speak to North about the whole business. He didn't know how long it took for him to fly across the world but soon he could see the snow covered hills and mountains of the pole and he headed straight for the building concealed within the ice. Flying in through an open window, Jack made his way through the corridors and large rooms, not even stopping to look at the new toys or even to say hello to the yetis; he was a Guardian on a mission. He found North in the Globe Room and Jack landed right in front of the man.

"Jack!" North exclaimed, "Why surprise visit today?" he asked cheerfully, but when Jack didn't smile or answer back the grin fell from the man's face. "What is wrong?" North asked with concern.

Jack began pacing the length of the Globe Room as North watched him with concern written plainly on his face. "Why didn't you tell me?" Jack demanded.

"Tell you what, Jack?" North asked.

"About Pitch! The Man in the Moon had to show me."

"Oh," the man sighed and shook his head; he hadn't wanted Manny to do that. For the main that he knew it would only encourage Jack to be sympathetic to the Nightmare King. But Jack hadn't been there too see just how evil the Bogeyman could be. Jack hadn't been there when Pitch had killed people mercilessly for his own amusement, therefore he couldn't hate the man as much as the other, much older, Guardians could.

"Yeah, 'oh," Jack said, "Why didn't you tell me? He's only like that because he cared about his kid."

"And in so doing let himself be tricked by Nightmares," North said. "Is very sad; yes, but fatal mistake for whole world," he added.

"Like we wouldn't've done the same?!"

"Perhaps, is true, but..."

"No...you can't say that. It wasn't his fault," Jack sighed. "...Whatever happened to her, anyway?"

"Is long story," North waved a hand, "Short version, Manny said; became Mother Nature," he said and Jack blinked.

"Huh...how?"

"Is long story, not important," the man reiterated.

"Does he remember it all the time...or does he forget it sometimes?"

"We think it come and goes; sometimes there is nothing, other time there is something."

"Don't you think we should help him?" Jack asked.

"Pitch will refuse help of anyone."

"He won't be able to say no if he's dead."

"Fear cannot die, he was telling truth about that," North replied grimly.

"But if we do nothing, he's just gonna get all angry and he's gonna attack again."

"Is too late for change, too much under bridge."

"I don't think so," Jack crossed his arms.

"Be careful, Jack," North warned him, "Cornered animals bite, Pitch is no exception."

"Yeah...tell me about it," the young Guardian rolled his eyes.

"Please do not tell me you went there before here."

"Erm...I didn't go there..." Jack shrugged and North sighed again.

"Pity will be death of you, Jack."

"Well...maybe...but I can't give up yet," Jack replied and flew away through an open window.

A.N. There's lots of reference to what happens in the books in this one, and just to note - all I know of Pitch's backstory comes from the Wikipedia page about him, okay? So if its wrong, please let me know. The name of Pitch's daughter, i.e. Mother Nature, I've read, is still not confirmed so I refrained from guessing.

Let me know your thoughts, people.