Pitch could barely suppress his glee as he shot out the tunnel and into his palace. Leaping to his feet, he didn't pay the golden lights a second glance as he hurried to his office. On the wall was a looking glass, which could show him anywhere in the non-magical world. Reaching a grey, skeletal finger out, he caressed the surface.

"Jack Frost," he murmured, and ripples spread outwards from the point of contact. There stood Jack Frost, his white hair flopping down over his ice blue eyes. He was saying something to a child, and Pitch had never seen the newest guardian look so happy. Pitch laughed again.

They had fallen for it! Oh, the fools, they had bought it entirely! Even the man in the moon had believed his little trick. He pulled out a baby tooth fairy, one of a few that he'd kept extra hidden, and tied a cord about its stomach, laughing as it tried desperately to escape. He gave the cord a sharp yank, and the baby tooth flew into the wall. It immediately got up and tried again, but it had barely taken off before Pitch swung it into the floor. He turned back to the glass, still absently playing with the cord. A dark little smile was dancing around his lips.

Children! As if he still cared about them. All children would stop believing eventually; that or they would die first. What use was there in bothering with children? He wasn't like those other pathetic guardians. He didn't need children to believe in him for him to have his powers. He was stronger than them, even if they thought otherwise.

Jack Frost, though. Jack Frost was different. No one had ever believed in him. Even now, there were only a handful of children in some god-forsaken American town that could even see him. Yet he was strong. When Pitch had let Jack defeat him that first time, it had almost been real defeat. It wasn't, but it came close. Jack Frost didn't need children.

So why, then, was he still obsessed with them? Determined to be a guardian? Pitch didn't know, but he did know Jack Frost's greatest fear, and oh was it a good one. A fear strong enough to break the toughest of men... what would happen, then, if it were to come true?

Pitch's smile widened.