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They went to Pitch’s lair together, Jack and Tooth, after Jack had returned his memory box to Tooth and she had discovered his very last memories, his memories of drowning, had been suppressed.
“Only Pitch would have done this,” Tooth had told Jack, her fingers sorting through the diamonds of colored light that she could read as his memories. “To be blunt, you don’t know how, and me and my fairies never hide any memories, because we know that if they end up in the teeth, they’re important. Even if they are,” she had frowned then, “terrifying.”
“But why would he have done that?” Jack had asked. “Wouldn’t he have wanted me to be frightened of my own memories?”
Only Pitch could answer that question, and so they now wandered through gloomy caves and ruined, stygian architecture, looking for the fallen Nightmare King. They found him curled up in the Antarctica plate of the globe he had made as a copy of North’s, once more shining brightly with the lights of believers.
“I thought he’d want to stay away from a reminder that he lost,” Jack said softly to Tooth. Pitch still heard, though, and sat up, pulling his knees to his chest. He looked gaunter than ever.
“I do want to stay away from it.” He said. “But it’s the only source of real light in this wretched place, and it keeps me safe from my nightmares, which, thanks to you, can only feed upon me now.”
“Maybe you should have thought of that possibility before creating them.” Tooth narrowed her eyes and Pitch looked back at her with weary scorn.
“What do you want?” He stood up slowly and stepped out of the globe. “I assume you didn’t come here just to taunt me. You’re much too busy and you wouldn’t have needed to bring Jack along then.”
“You altered my memories while you had them,” Jack said. “You buried my last moments under everything else. Why?”
“Does it matter why I do anything? I assume what I did has been undone. So, there is no need to question it anymore.”
“Pitch.” Tooth’s voice was sharp, stalling him before he could continue his monologue. “It matters because you did something even one of my softest-hearted fairies wouldn’t do. You put his good memories ahead of the bad instead of taking them as they were.”
“I was terrified when I drowned,” Jack said. “You could have had me relive that fear. That would have given you power, wouldn’t it? So why didn’t you?”
Pitch scoffed and folded his arms. “Your last memory was bad enough, don’t you think? And at that point, I was already riding high on the nightmares of children around the world. I didn’t need your fear.”
“That’s not an answer.” Tooth flew closer to him and he backed away. “Don’t act like you didn’t want to crush us completely. If there was power to be had, it only makes sense that you would have taken it.”
“Well, maybe I’m insane,” Pitch said, rolling his eyes and turning as if to return to his globe, only to be met with Jack’s staff blocking his way.
“Answer us, Pitch.”
Pitch glared at them both, but neither showed any sign of being willing to let it go. His shoulders slumped and he looked down at the ground. “Fine. But it doesn’t even make sense to me. I buried the memory because the fear seemed wrong for Jack. His fear of failing his sister was fine, but not that of dying. I don’t know what the difference is. I acted on instinct.”
Tooth and Jack looked at each other, puzzled. Soon, though, realization dawned on Jack’s face. “The fear I had while I was drowning was wrong because I can’t drown anymore. I’m immortal. But you could still use the other fear because I can still fail the people I care about.”
“Oh, good. A rational explanation. Now I suppose you will leave me alone? I really see no reason for violence against my person in this situation, if you don’t mind. After all, I didn’t damage the memory. At least not on purpose.”
“No, you didn’t damage the memory,” Tooth admitted. “But Pitch—doesn’t this seem important to you? This distinction you make between fears? Their,” she hesitated, dropping slightly closer to the ground, “usefulness?” She said the last word very quietly.
Pitch scowled. “Nothing is important to me right now except my bare survival. It occupies all my time and attention and has done so since you defeated me. If you feel like figuring me out, why don’t you look in the tooth you took from me? Unless you threw it away.”
“I don’t throw away teeth!” Tooth said, indignant. “And you know what? I will look. And you—you’re coming with me. To help me put together the fragments. I’m going to figure you out. Whether you like it or not!”
“You would take me from my own lair—”
“Yes! And it will go badly for you if you put up a fight!”
Relief washed over Pitch’s face for an instant before his sour expression returned. “Then I guess I must concede, weakened as I am.”
***
When the three returned to the Tooth Palace, Pitch had tried to act haughty and resistant, but his act had been ruined as he fell asleep on a brightly lit balcony within a few minutes of arrival. Off-duty mini-fairies fluttered around him curiously.
“This of course doesn’t have anything to do with saving him from his own nightmares, right?” Jack said to Tooth.
“Of course not,” she sniffed. “It is entirely for my own purposes. How could I want to help Pitch after what he did to me?”
One of the mini-fairies settled down for a nap in the crook of Pitch’s elbow.
“Well, if you need any help in your quest for knowledge, just send Baby Tooth to let me know.”
Tooth nodded, and waved Jack on his way. “Now,” she said to Pitch’s sleeping form. “I’m very busy, and don’t have time to deal with you at this instant, so you had better stay asleep for a good long while. But when you wake up we start working with your tooth! No matter how painful it is! So there!”
***
Curiously, it took Tooth just as much time to figure out Pitch’s memories as it took Pitch to recover enough to be able to control his nightmares.