A collaboration between Redbat132 and guestsurprise. :)

Ben 10 (for Professor Paradox) belongs to Cartoon Network and Man of Action. Mythology belongs to its respective owners. Rise Of The Guardians belongs to its respective owners. Katherine, Nightlight, and Lea belong to Redbat132. Zambanza, Marcello, Damus, and Lauhin belong to guestsurprise. :)

When Magic And Darkness Collide

Katherine let out a deep breath and Lauhin nodded to her as she slowly began her story. She wasn't sure about where to begin, but she knew she had to tell them.

"Alright, girls. Listen and listen carefully to the history of Pitch and his daughter…Emily Jane. Or as you all would know her as Mother Nature. But first…I want to tell you all about her and how her story began." Katherine said.

"Alright," Lea said, now feeling nervous.

"We are ready," Zambanza said, now trying not to be nervous too.

"Emily Jane lived together with her parents in a beautiful marble pillared palace in a moon inside the Constellation Orion. Emily Jane was a wild, joyful child who constantly tried to imitate her father by going out on her little schooner around the asteroids surrounding her home. Her mother would scold her to be closer or stay at home, but her father loved his girl's wild heart, so he turned a blind eye to her disobedient sailing ways. One night the Dream Pirates staged a fake ambush outside of Orion, and Pitch left to stop the feigned threat. As he left, Emily Jane gave him a locket with her picture and he put it on. He hugged and kissed her and told her 'I'll be back soon.' Her reply was 'Promise?' and his reply was 'On my soul.' But while he was away chasing a fake threat, the shadow Nitians came to attack the Pitchiner mansion. Emily Jane had snuck out to sail in her schooner with Star Fish, which were her favorite creatures of the stellar seas. The shadow Nitians were looking for Emily Jane, but her mother made sure to distract them and make it look like Emily Jane was dead! After watching her mother fall to her death, Emily Jane traveled in space until she stumbled upon the Constellation Typhan and there she was treated kindly by Typhan and some of the mythical hunicorns nearby the realm. The hunicorn king took a liking to her and she was also trained by his son, Marcello. As we all know, Marcello is Jocu's best friend here." Katherine smirked.

"Yes, he is," Jocu winked. "But I did not know he helped to train Emily Jane."

"Yes, that is how she learned about other beings," Katherine explained. "Both Typhan and the hunicorn king treated her as their daughters. Though Typhan taught her how to harness and control all the natural elements, he was not a father to her. After 10 years, Emily Jane's heart was consumed by rage towards the father that never came looking for her and attacked an innocent ship. Typhan told her to stop, and when she screamed 'You are not my father!' at him, he became so hurt that he sealed her inside a shooting star that she could not escape until it crashed onto a planet of its choice.

"Sandy, who was a Star Pilot at the time was assigned to 'saddle' a wishing star, a kind of shooting star that Emily Jane had become. Unaware of who she was, he joined with her when he found her lingering around Star Fish and they began to sail the galaxies together defeating Shadow Nitians. Shadow Nitians were terrible beings and no one knew who the creator was…at least…not yet.

"For a while Emily Jane did not tell Sandy her name, until the star was going so fast, it nearly hurt a planet and the people making wishes. She told him who she was and had another temperamental fit, stopped flying, and nearly turned into a sun. Sandy told her that if they flew together, they could go looking for Pitch together. This convinced her to move again. Though Emily Jane became schooled in the whole range of living things' wishes, she was interested in when they say their general wish is 'to be happy.' Emily Jane finally admitted she had a new wish: to basically move on.

"However, that wish wasn't going be, because little did Emily and Sandy know, the shadow Nitians heard Emily's original wish to be reunited with her father and played a trick on Pitch while he was guarding their prison. Using Emily's wish, the shadow Nitians imitated her voice and Pitch, which hoped that his daughter was alive, opened the door and this allowed the Nitian King Damus to come forward and deliver a lethal bite into Pitch and became the Earth's Nightmare King. Pitch eventually heard Emily's dream and went to Sandy and his Star, not even knowing that the star had Emily Jane in its core. Emily saw and couldn't believe that's her father and what he has become. She chose not to speak at the time, because if she was found, both Emily and Sandy would be killed by Pitch. When the star crashed, Emily Jane was free from her imprisonment. Natural phenomena and other spirits called her Mother Nature, due to the power that she possessed. Afterwards, she became mistrustful of others and used her watchers from the clouds to rainbows." Katherine said.

"T-That's terrible!" Lea said in horror!

"She and her father are still not reunited?" Zambanza asked, now looking sad.

"We have to reunite them somehow; this story is still far from over," Lea said in confidence.

"That will be easier said than done," Professor Paradox said in concern.

"Yes, you two are connected with Emily Jane. You both have experienced pain and suffering, so it would be easier for her to connect with you all, but also Damus wants you both too," Katherine said.

"Why?" Lea asked, now gripping Nightlight in fear.

"He knows that you both have experienced pain and suffering and he wants to use that for his plan. He adores pain," Paradox said.

"And that is why you both will need to be extra aware of the surroundings," Jocu said.

"And be careful who you trust," Katherine said.

"Yes, the Shadow Nitains are still used for stealth and lethal missions for Damus; they are very dangerous," Lauhin said. "When you all go and visit Mother Nature, one of my sons needs to be present."

"Yes, we can sense their presence," Jocu said.

"Jocu…can you accompany us?" Katherine asked. "We still don't know exactly where she is…at this time, she doesn't want to be found."

"We will help you all find her," Lauhin said. Katherine nodded and then went to get the hot tea and cookies from the back room. Once she entered, she then had them all sit down once more.

"Well, I do feel a weight off of my chest, but I still have to tell you more about how Pitch became how he is," Katherine said in concern.

"So…he didn't turn evil by choice?" Lea said.

"No…he wanted his family and wanted nothing more than to live in peace for the rest of his life. But…Damus the Nitian King had a hand in all of this," Katherine said, her voice lowering to an angry growl.

"He is behind most of the terrible things that happen on Earth and other galaxies," Lauhin said, now letting his eyes glow slightly in anger.

"Yes…he is a menace and it is because of him that Emily Jane had a terrible life and the others did as well," Katherine said, now watching the steam rise from the cups of tea. "Let me tell you all what happened…,"

"I don't know if I can bear anything else so sad…," Lea said, hanging her head. But she gasped as Lauhin lifted her chin and kissed her nose gently.

"Shhh…it's alright," he cooed. "It will all be alright."

Katherine smiled at the cute site and Professor Paradox gently tickled her side.

"Now, now…don't be concerned. Tell them the story," he winked.

"Alright, alright! No tickling," she giggled. But her eyes opened wide as Jocu winked at her.

"No promises…but we will let you continue the story," he cooed, now leaning back and letting his tail sway playfully.

"Okay, I'll start from the beginning. Kozmotis Pitchiner was called 'Lord Pitch' by his fleet, and his full title was Lord High General of the Galaxies. He was a 'just and fair' person who was 'full of compassion for his enemies.' He traveled around capturing Shadow Nitians and other criminals and imprisoning and feeding them humanely. He and his wife Lady Pitchiner raised their daughter Emily Jane together in this beautiful marble pillared palace in a moon inside the Constellation Orion.

"The Shadow Nitians eventually learned that if Pitch couldn't be destroyed in body, they could 'simply destroy his spirit.' So they started searching for his family, whom he loved most of all things. One night, Nitians staged a fake ambush outside of Orion and Pitch left to stop the feigned threat. As he left, Emily Jane gave him her locket and he put it on. He hugged and kissed her and told her 'I'll be back soon.' But while he was away chasing a fake threat, the Nitians came to attack the Pitchiner mansion. Emily Jane had snuck out to sail in her schooner with Star Fish without permission from her mother. So ironically, her disobedience saved her life. But her mother realized that if the Nitians came to attack them and found Emily Jane had escaped, they would come back later to try and capture her again. So she took a dummy doll that she pretended was Emily Jane and jumped from a window to her death with the Nitians watching. She unfortunately died, and they believed both she and Emily Jane had died.

"When Pitch returned home, realizing he had been duped, he had all the Nitians captured and questioned. The entire incident had driven him to the brink of madness. He asked, agitated, what had happened to his wife and daughter, and Damus sneakily told him that they had died. Pitch totally lost his composure and threated to run Damus through with his gun; Damus, of course, was feeding off of his rage and laughed and taunted him. Damus could escape the prison anytime he wanted; he was only there so that he could get Pitch to open the door and let him have full access to him. Pitch, still in a crazy rage, made it a mission to hunt down and capture all Nitians and Nightmare entities in the cosmos, and stick them on the prison planet. Because he believed he had nothing else to live for, he volunteered to guard the door, taking the locket of Emily Jane as his sole comfort. However, when they had the opportunity…Damus made the move and turned Pitch, the once noble lord, into a nightmare entity we now know as Pitch Black," Katherine ended.

Once she was finished, the room was silent and everyone looked at each other in sadness. It was a terrible tale and everyone felt bad for the loss of Emily and her father. They wanted them to be reunited, but that would take some time…especially now that Damus was on the move.

"We now need to head to where Emily Jane's energy is and we need to speak to her." Lauhin said.

"But she does not speak to anyone now after what happened," Lea said.

"No…but she no doubt knows we want to speak to her because she has watchers. We need to let her know what is happening with her father and that they do need to be reunited. Damus is using Pitch and he no doubt will be after you and Zambanza because of the power you harness and your pasts." Lauhin continued. "However, it is best that many of us do not make our appearance. It may frighten her. Jocu, you can accompany the three of them there to see Emily Jane. Professor Paradox and I will be around until we know when we need to make an appearance."

Jocu nodded and the three could fill a small chill in the air. This adventure was getting off to a strong start and there was no telling what could happen!

guestsurprise's words: I hope you all have enjoyed this! Redbat132 and I worked on this together and there is more to come to this wonderful mystery!

To guestsurprise and Redbat132: Quite a mystery indeed! :)

To everyone else: Please leave guestsurprise and Redbat132 a review, but no flames!

GoldGuardian2418