If I Can't Have The Father…

-So, this is going to be a Rise of the Guardians/Guardians of Childhood one-shot that I have been wanting to do.

-This takes place after the events of the movie.

-Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Rise of the Guardians/Guardians of Childhood characters!

Pitch remembers the Golden Age like it happened yesterday.

The Golden age was a time where travel between the planets and stars were common with airships. The universe was governed by the constellations –a group of planets and stars led by the most beloved families of power, they ruled strongly and with fairness. However, they were not completely at peace. They were plagued with fearlings, nightmare men, and dream pirates.

In order to prevent the evil beings from threatening the peace, the most powerful constellations –the house of Lunanoff- built a prison to contain them.

Kozmotis Pitchiner was the general of the Golden Armies, under his command, he led an armada to capture them and he alone volunteered to guard the prison. However, after spending many years alone on the prison planet, Kozmotis grew lonely and fearful. Kozmotis began to miss his daughter and the fearlings took advantage of that fear. They disguised their voice as his young daughter leading him into a trap.

Kozmotis knew that his daughter would no longer be the child that he heard but he was lost in his will to save his daughter, to be able to see her again. In an attempt to rescue his daughter, he opened the gates and the fearlings escaped by latching onto the great general, his body being possessed by thousands of the shadow beings. No longer was he Kozmotis Pitchiner, leader of the golden army. He was Pitch Black, the Nightmare King.

Pitch was sitting on this throne thinking of a way to defeat the guardians, after his most recent defeat, they had gained a new ally, Jack Frost. Jack Frost reminded him a lot of Tsar Lunar, the man in the moon. He had the strongest power of light that even rivaled his old enemy, Nightlight. With Jack on their side, he would not stand a chance against the other Guardians.

He had to find a way to defeat the youngest Guardian, but how? Perhaps he could spy on the frost sprite and discover a weakness?

Pitch shadow traveled to North's workshop, making sure to stay hidden in the shadows. He was surprised to see that none of the alarms went off. His attention was drawn away after, instead of Jack Frost, he found North in a conversation with none other than the Man in the Moon himself.

"But Manny," he heard North speak up, "Pitch is gone, too weak to make a move for a long time. Why must we protect Jack?"

Pitch scowled at that, no wonder none of the alarms went off to warn them of his presence. Stupid guardians, he may have been defeated but you can never truly get rid of fear.

Tsar sighed and shifted. He was a very short and stubby man. He wore golden slacks with a white shirt and golden vest. A bright red bowtie was snuggled safely against his neck. Pitch noticed that he never grew out of his bald head, just a single hair sticking straight up on his head. "I should have told you all of this when I commanded you to recruit him." He looked up at North before continuing, "Jack is my son."

Pitch stood in shock, staring at Tsar while North began cursing in Russian. He spoke up, "Your son? Manny how is that possible?"

"Jack was born from my powers –my essence- and Mother Nature's combined. When Jack died on the lake that day, I knew that he must be brought back as a Guardian. It was his destiny. However, the lake damaged his human core. I used my center of fun and transferred it to Jack, while Mother Nature gave him the power of winter. By all means and rights, Jack is my son."

North for once grew quiet. He could only stare at the man in the moon before him, so Tsar continued, "If Pitch finds out who Jack really is, I'm afraid he'll try to do to Jack what he failed to do to me all those centuries ago."

Pitch gasped and faded back to his layer. Of Course! Why didn't he think of that?

He thought about the time when he first became the Nightmare King. His mind was destroyed and tainted with vengeance; he was determined to destroy the house of Lunanoff and the entire Golden Age by turning the dreams into nightmares. He plundered the galaxy, destroying planets, stars, airships, and replaced every good dream with nightmares. Especially those of children, those who had the rawest fear. Often times, he would turn the children into fearlings, servants under his control, while his army grew in great sizes.

After ravaging every outpost, he went after the Constellation Lunanoff. He was determined to turn their son, who had never had a nightmare, into his Prince of Nightmares. However, he was defeated by Nightlight, Tsar Lunar's friend and protector. He was imprisoned on earth, while Tsar became the moon looking out for the children of earth.

Pitch had not turned any children into fearlings in a long, long time. He had no need too; however, if Jack were the son of Tsar Lunar then he would make an exception. He could turn Jack into his Prince of Nightmares! The amount of power that would be at his disposal, the Guardians would not stand a chance!

This is what led him to the attack on the Workshop, he may not have enough power to defeat the Guardians but he just needed to stall them long enough to infect Jack with the nightmare sand.

"Jack, stay close!" He heard North shout. North was worried, after hearing about who Jack really was, he was determined that no harm came to Jack.

"Don't worry I can handle a few nightmares!" He heard Jack shout back. Pitch smirked. He may be able to handle the nightmares, but he would never be able to resist what was about to happen. He only hoped that Tsar was watching.

Pitch aimed a single black arrow right at the center of Jack's back. The sand would only take a few minutes to take effect. Because it contained raw fearlings, not even Sandy's dream sand would be able to change it back.

Bunny looked up at Pitch right as he released the arrow, "Frostbite, look out!"

Just as Jack turned around, the arrow plunged itself into his heart. Jack screamed out and dropped to the ground as the arrow faded into his skin. Pitch's grin grew to the size of his face as he let out a loud cackle.

A bright light filled the room; all the Guardians including Pitch had no choice but to look away. Once the light dimmed, Tsar was standing in the middle of the room looking horrified.

"Kozmotis! What have you done?" Tsar frantically kneeled down next to Jack who was breathing heavily but was unconscious.

Pitch hissed at the name, "I am no longer Kozmotis, Tsar." He laughed again before grinning down at Tsar, "As for what I have done, well, I am changing your son to be my Prince of Nightmares."

All the Guardians gasped after hearing what Pitch said. Except for North who cursed yet again and clenched his fists at his side. Neither Tsar nor Pitch broke eye contact with each other however. Tsar whispered, "You knew...how?"

"I overheard your little conversation with North the other day about how Jack was your son." Pitch looked over at North, "You really shouldn't let your guard down so easily." North scowled at him as Pitch looked back down as Tsar, Jack was beginning to wake up, "I heard how you gave him your center of fun. I always wondered how it was that Jack was so powerful, so very like you." He began laughing again as the Guardians ran up to Jack. North stood up and aimed his shashka's at Pitch's neck. However, it would do him no good as he had already won.

"It's too late North, he already belongs to me." He looked down at Jack and whispered, "Jackkk…wake up."

Jack shot awake and jumped into the air. He looked down at the people in the workshop before touching down right beside Pitch.

The Guardians gasped after taking in his appearance, he had hair as black as night. He still wore his signature outfit but instead of being covered in frost, it was covered in crystals infused with nightmare sand. His eyes were a bright gold and his skin took on a grayish complexion.

Jack reached forward and shoved North away from Pitch and himself, "You will not harm my master."

Pitch laughed and ran his hands through Jack's hair, "Well, this certainly turned out better than I expected. Most children I turned to fearlings were mindless drones. Jack certainly is special isn't he?" He smirked at Tsar just as the Guardians ran forward.

Jack jumped in front of Pitch and extended his staff at them. A mix of frost and nightmare sand swirling at the tip as he repeated, "You will not harm my master."

Tsar stepped forward trying to call out to Jack, "Jack. Please, I am sorry I never told you about who you really were to me. Please, fight it! Let me make it up to you. Please, you must not give in to Pitch. He only means to use you."

Jack stared at Tsar. He did nothing but stare at him, while the Guardians began getting closer. Pitch called out to Jack, "Jack. Tell Tsar what you think of him."

Jack looked up at his master and nodded before turning to look at the man in the moon, "For years, I called out to you and you never answered. You left me alone for 300 years and now you suddenly call me your son. Well Tsar Lunar. It is too late." Tsar looked at Jack with horror then sadness, tears starting to fall down his face.

Pitch cackled and reached out to Jack. He wrapped one hand around his waist and the other blocking his eyes as he pulled him towards him on the cloud of nightmare sand. He looked down at Tsar as they began fading into the shadows, "Well Tsar. It appears that you have bestowed me with the perfect Prince of Nightmares."

He looked at the sad faces of the Guardians before calling out, "After all, if I can't have the father, I'll just have to take the son."

With that, Pitch disappeared taking Tsar's only light with him.

Authors Note:

Well, that was it. What did you guys think?

I found the picture on Google or Pinterest! If it is your drawing and you DO NOT WANT ME TO USE IT PLEASE TELL ME! I will gladly take it off.

I have read the Guardian of Childhood series and really wanted to incorporate Pitch wanting to turn Tsar Lunar into the Prince of Nightmares but failing. I know that Jack is not actually Tsar's son but I wanted to have fun with this!

Just as a clarification: Pitch calls Man in Moon Tsar while North called him Manny. That is why it kept switching based on the POV showing.

Please feel free to review or favorite!