Rae kicked a bit of ground as she walked on the crumbling streets in her hometown. "One more year" she said aloud. "I'm not sure if I can stand one more day in this hell, much less a year" she muttered, choking back tears. She looked up into the sky, at the full moon above her. Rae realized she should get home. She ran back, realizing she had left her sister with her step-father. A severe feeling rose into her chest. Fear. She had been scared all her life, but she had never been this scared. "No. No no no no NO" she screamed as she burst through the house. He sister was crying in a corner, small bruises were already showing on her arms, and a large lump was submerging from her head. She picked her up ran. She ran as fast as she could to the nearest hospital. When her sister was safe, she went back to grab her some stuff. When she entered the door a beer bottle was flung and barely missed her head. Bits of glass flew everywhere and grazed a bit of her skin. Her stepfather emerged into the room with a knife in hand. Then everything went black.

Rae woke, and it was still night. The moon shone brightly, but she looked at it with shear hate. It seemed as if it spoke to her. "Raven" it seemed to whisper. She didn't care. She started walking, she started walking far away. She didn't know who she was, what she was doing, she didn't know anything. But something deep inside her told her that she didn't belong here. She walked through the empty streets, through a forest, and next to a small frozen pond. She sat there and thought. Her short auburn hair seemed to shine in the moonlight, and she was wearing black jeans and a normal white t shirt. The snow was so cold; she couldn't feel her feet anymore. She has to find a warm place to stay or she would surely die. She tried to move her feet to get blood circulating through them, but her feet wouldn't move. She got up and struggled to get to the next town. By the time she got there she was in extreme pain from the cold. She went up to a house and knocked. "Please please answer" A man opened the door "Please let me into your house please I'm so cold-"
"Damn kids runnin' off and disruptin' me sleep by knockin'"
"Sir please let me in-" the door shut. It seemed as if the man had not even seen her. She tried two other houses with the same result. She placed her now frozen hands in her pockets, to try and warm them. A sudden cold breeze made her collapse onto the tall snow. She felt so tired. Maybe if she just rested here...

She woke and found herself in a warm bustling place. The smell of something sweet and warm and chocolate-y invaded her nostrils. She snuggled herself in the warm covers, she couldn't think of anything more comfortable. She rolled out of the bed, a white sheet wrapped around her body. She had to find out where that intoxicating scent was coming from. She opened the door and found herself thrown into a world unimaginable. Small creatures scurried around in red and green uniforms, large hairy creatures were walking around with a disgruntled look on their faces. She immediately closed the door. She blinked a couple times, and opened the door again. "What the..." What the only thing she could mutter. She had forgotten about finding where that scent led her and looked for the man who ran this freakshow. She walked around for a bit, until a woman, no, there's no way it was a woman. "Hello! You must be the new girl! Oh! Open wide! I wanna see these teeth! Oh! Just open your mouth! Come on!"
"Um... I don't really want to show you my te-" Raven was cut off by the weird woman bird crossover thing had her hands in her mouth, looking at her teeth.
"You've got a PERFECT set of adult ones! What's your name darling I can't wait to see your baby teeth!"
"Who are you" Raven asked, terrified at this creature beyond belief.
"I'm the Tooth Fairy! And you must be the girl who's going to become a guardian"
"Um what" Raven felt so confused.
"Just come this way. I'll go get North, Bunnymund, Jack and Sandman and we can get you all ready to become a Guardian"
"Wait... No... Come back..."
She was gone in an instant. Raven sat on the floor, more confused now than scared. What was a Tooth Fairy? Why did it sound familiar? Where was she? How did she get here? What was that intoxicating smell?
A man with a large white beard and red clothes came up to her "Ah, you must be new girl" he said. Jack found you lying in snow in Finland." The man stopped to eat a strange circular item. "Cookie?" She said, handing her one of these "cookies"
"What's a cookie? And more importantly, who are you?"
The man gave a hearty laugh. "Surely you joke. You know what cookie is and who I am. Everyone knows."
"No. No I really don't." She looked down with a sorrowful pout. We're these things she was supposed to know? She took a bite out of the food, and the warmth seemed to comfort her. "This is really good... It reminds me of something I just can't remember what" She said. Soon a man bunny crossover thing appeared. She almost wasn't surprised since the bird woman scared her. Almost. "Oi mate, the name's Bunnymund, also known as the Easter Bunny." He said, as of Raven was supposed to know him. "The who...?" She said.
"I'm sorry what? You don't know the Easter Bunny? That's like not knowing how to breathe." He said.
"I'm sorry... I've just never heard of you.." A small little man emerged from the middle of nowhere. He said nothing. He was using sand to try and talk to her.
"I'm sorry but I don't understand. Well... You're a man... And you're using sand... You must be the... The..." The man looked at her happily waiting for the response. "Mansand?" The happy face of the man disappeared. "No... I'm guessing I'm wrong" Raven said. Her shoulders sank.
A white haired man came next to her. "Hey. You must be the new girl. I'm Jack. Jack Frost"
Raven backed away from all of them. "I'm sorry. I don't know any of you and you act like I should. What makes you guys so sure I'll know you?" Their serious faces all turned to laughter. She looked at them confused. Then she felt something rising from her stomach. She was angry. "Stop it!" She screamed. The building shook, and everyone looked at her seriously now. "Now, you're going to answer my questions. Whether you like it or not. They all nodded. "Who are you people?"
"You've seriously... Never heard of us?" The tooth woman said.
"No. Seriously why should I know you"
"Didn't you ever get told about us as a little girl?"
Raven tried to remember anything before she woke up on the middle of a street. She couldn't.
"It's all just blackness I can't remember anything but waking up in the middle of a street... And then the moon said something to me. I know that sounds crazy. But it said "Raven" which I guess is my name because it seemed right. This is so much it's insane. I can't handle this."

They all looked at her and then looked at eachother in disbelief. Jack hadn't even been this much trouble. "Don't look at me like that! I'm not going to let you people think I'm some stupid ass crazy bitch! I'm not! I'm just confused and, I guess I'm a bit afraid. I don't know what's going on and you all think I should know, have I been missing something really important all my life?" Raven hung her head in shame. Why did she have to be here? Why?

Jack was the first to go up to the girl. "Listen… I think I understand a bit where you're coming fro-"

"No I really don't think you understand where I'm coming from. Apparently I'm the only one here who has never ever heard of you people. It's absolutely ridiculous please just fill me in of everything and what the hell you mean by all this."

So, they told her all who they were, about The Man in the Moon, about what a Guardian is, and about Pitch Black. She sat up after asking multiple questions, and started to walk away.

"Hey! You can't just leave… Aren't you going to become a Guardian?" Bunnymund asked.

"Listen… Thanks, but no thanks for now. I just need some time to think about all of this. I mean I've just been thrown into this. I don't know anything about my life before… I don't know anything. I need some time to think. I need to find out about myself." She said.

Tooth came flying over as fast as she could. "I can help you find out more about yourself" She said eagerly.

"I really don't think so… I want to find out about my past. How could teeth help with that?" Ravem said suspiciously.

"I probably have at least one of your baby teeth. Since teeth hold memories of your past, maybe that could help you!"

"I guess it's our best shot, even though I probably didn't put any teeth under my pillow since I probably didn't believe in you." She said. But finding those teeth and finding her memories were her only hope right now.

"Well, we may have a problem... can you fly?" Tooth asked.

"Um well…" Raven looked at her back and then felt something strange. A sharp pain overtook her, like two knives going through her back.. A pair of large grey wings erupted from her back, and she screamed from the pain. "Well, that was.." She winced trying to move them "Painfully convenient"

She got used to the wings and followed Tooth to her palace. Tooth looked all around, searching for the one case that would have Raven's face on it. They searched for hours upon hours upon hours. They couldn't find any of the cases that had her exact memories. They did, however find a couple empty slots when they were searching.

"I must was lost a couple cases when Pitch stole all of the teeth" Tooth said, stress and worry invaded her voice.

"I need to find my memories… If I can find out where Pitch's lair is I can get you back your teeth and get back mine too." Raven said. She was willing to do anything it took to get her memories back. She needed to know who she was.

"It's too dangerous! Pitch is our enemy, goodness knows what could happen if you went!" Tooth tried to convince her to stay. It was so dangerous for someone like Raven to go down there. She would get hurt. The fairy knew it in her gut.

"You said he's the weakest he's ever been, and with these wings I could totally out run him. I'm going whether you want me to or not. It's best for the both of us if I go. Besides, he doesn't even know me, so he probably won't care as much as if he saw you or one of the other Guardians." Raven argued. She then thanked the Tooth Fairy and flew off as fast as she could towards the ground, looking for possible places where she would think a sketchy creepy lair would be hiding.

After hours of searching, she happened upon a hole covered by a broken battered bed. She had searched cave after cave and abandoned buildings and spooky things alike, she floated down the dark hole. As it turned out, the dusty crumbling place was Pitch's lair. There were the black horses described by the Guardians, and the old cages that Jack had described to her. She crept around the dirt corridors in search for the golden tooth holders. Raven found one, but it was a small boy's case. She sighed. This place seemed like it was nice at one point. What caused it to look so bad now? She ran her fingers down the wall, making random turns left and right, zig-zagging her way through the tunnels, hiding herself in the shadows from the horses. She didn't understand why the others were so scared of someone who couldn't even keep his castle in order. She found herself going in circles, until she found a chamber; the door was opened slightly, so she peeked through. No one was in there, and a small gold case lay in the corner, with a face that resembled Raven's. She silently ran to it, grabbed it and ran from the room, subconsciously, she closed her door on the way out. "Shit" she muttered as she heard footsteps coming closer. The corridors were too small for her to spread her wings, so she ran. Horses blocked her path and she tried to round the corner. She spun around to see golden glimmering eyes looking down at her. A smug smile on his face, the nightmare king gave a slight chuckle as he looked at her. "So… who might you be? A new 'friend' of the Guardians?" He asked, as he moved closer to her.

"Listen, right now, I don't care who you are or what you want, I just want to find out who I am because all this shit has got me confused and I don't feel like being confused about myself anymore. In fact, I'm sick of it. So if you could excuse me as I go through my life and see what the hell happened, I would be happy to talk to you after I am done." Raven said. She was having absolutely none of this today. She had worked her ass off to find this piece of shit case; she wasn't going to let some asshole take it from her. "If you don't mind I'm going to look through my memories now. Memories are oh, I don't know, kind of a big and private deal." She commented before opening the box. Pitch didn't back off he just looked stunned. No one had ever talked like that before. What gave her the right to?

A sudden flash of light invaded the room, and a scene played out. A mother cradled a baby in her arms as her older daughter came up to her, showing her a drawing she had made. The mother ignored her and went back to caring for the baby. A couple years pass, the father comes home from a long day of work, and begins talking to the older daughter about her day. The mother walks out the of the house, and soon men dressed in black come into the house, shooting the father before taking his limp body away and lighting the house on fire. The mother goes to save the younger daughter, and the older one burns herself severely when trying to escape the burning flames. She is left with a scar on her left arm. The mother changes after that. She marries an abusive man with a drinking problem and becomes a drug addict, eventually over dosing on heroin. The older daughter is now celebrating her 18th birthday alone, before going back to the house to find her sister beaten severely and running her to the hospital. She goes back to get her sister's things, when the stepfather attacks her and eventually beats her to death.

Raven crumbled to the ground at these series of events. Everyone else was talking about how they had a happy life before they made a sacrifice. What did she have? Nothing. Why didn't she get to have fun like they had? Why didn't they come to her as a small child when she still believed in them? Why? Just why? She tried to hold back the tears, but they streamed down her face as she sat in the dirt in a heap.

She felt someone grab her chin and bring her head up high. She pulled away, she didn't want to be touched right now. She didn't want to feel anything. She shielded herself with her dark grey wings as she curled up into a ball and cried.

Pitch circled around her as he thought of something to say. He almost felt bad for the poor girl. He then thought about how he could use her power to fight against the Guardians. "What gives them the right to be happy while you sit here and feel miserable?" Was the first thing he said to her, walking around her, looking into her. "Think about it, even when you were small, you were still miserable, your mother never cared about you, and your father was never there. You waited every day to see the Guardians and for them to make you feel a shred of happiness. But they never did, you never even got any dreams from the Sandman as a little girl." He sat down next to her. She looked at him with her two different coloured eyes. "Think about it, and if you have anything you want to say to me, you know where to find me, if now, go join your "Friends", though I doubt they'll ever be there when you truly need them." Pitch began to walk away before the girl caught up and followed closely behind. She was looking at the ground, silent, as if she was thinking about something as hard as she possibly could. "What are you following me for? It's not like I could do anything for you, now, run along, before I chase you out." Pitch coldly stated to her. "Maybe… Maybe you could do something for me." She said. Pitch stopped and smirked at her. "What would I get in return if I did help you?" He inquired to her. "I'm just lost; I don't know how to get out. Here, take this." She gave him a silver necklace with a Celtic knot made from silver had put it around his neck. Pitch sighed as he looked the girl over. He grabbed her hand and showed her the way out. She didn't say a word until she got to the exit. "Thanks," she whispered as she looked again at his golden eyes. He inched closer towards her, but she backed away and flew back on her agile wings. He sighed as he went back into her chamber and thought about how foolish that girl was, and he found himself fiddling with the necklace she had given him.

Raven sighed as she came back up to North's workshop. She thought about how she had not even got any presents on Christmas when she was little, even though she would come rushing in to see if she had gotten any presents, there would simply be an empty room. She went to see the Guardians in the room, but before she had opened the door, she stopped and thought. She opened the door and said one thing. "I'm ready to become a Guardian now"

The ceremony was simple, and Raven used her best fake smile for it. She was dubbed a "Guardian Angel", and protector of all. She was given two sharp daggers and a white dress. She asked if the dress came in black, but all she got was a head shake of "No, Raven, why would you ask something so stupid, black is a bad colour." She sighed as she celebrated the ceremony. Or rather, the others celebrated it without her. She tried to inject herself into conversations, but she was soon forgotten, like a ghost. After a bit of "partying", everyone left the room, and so did Raven.

She flew around aimlessly until daybreak. Where she sat on a beach on an island in the middle of nowhere, and thought. She realized if she was really going to be a Guardian, she would have to do her job, and do it well. She looked at the water, and made small little angels and some demons (just to be equal) and told them to watch around the world in case any child, of any age was in danger. No matter whom they were, no matter what they looked like, and no matter how dangerous it was. She flew around, also, making sure all children were safe at home or at school. She did this around the clock for months, saving people little by little, and deeming the foul people of the world unsuitable for life. That part was not supposed to be part of her job, but she did it anyway to help out everyone. She didn't think scum like that belonged on this earth.

Soon, the Guardians stopped talking to her, and still, very little amounts of children believed in her. She sat in a snowy forest, feeling so numb from the cold. Her mind wandered, trying to think of a happy memory, but all she could see was sadness. She was tired of feeling sad. She wanted to feel anything but sadness, so she took out one of her daggers, and pressed it against her left wrist. She sighed with relief as the pain coursed through. She cut deep inside her skin a couple more times before she sat back on the tree branch, in a euphoric state from the pain. Drips of warm blood streamed from her wrists, and a bit fell onto her white dress. She didn't care. She sat there for hours, cutting deeper and deeper to keep the pain and keep herself distracted.

Her vision blurred as she looked to her left. A tall dark man stood mere feet away from her, staring at her intently. She struggled to sit up, and fell to the ground in a lightheaded state. She stood up slowly as she looked back into familiar golden eyes. He did something strange then. He lifted her wrist, looked at it for a moment and smelled it. She tried to pull away, but he only brought her closer. She pushed away with all her force as she broke free from him. She fell to the ground as the cold ice entered her cuts. Sharp stabs from the cold shot through her like needles. She stood back up and looked at Pitch, keeping her distance. "What do you want?" She said, as she tried to focus her dimming eyes. He walked back up to her and said "It appears I am lost, I was going to ask for help, but you look like you're in a worse state than me…" He said smugly, reveling in the fact his enemy was worse off than him for once. "Shut your face." She said in her brain dead state. She was losing blood faster and faster, but she didn't care. She didn't care if she died in the moment, she would have welcomed it, in fact. She slouched over and started to walk away. "I don't need your help; I don't need anyone's help…" She gloomily said, stumbling down in the heavy snow. She felt arms pick her up and carry her. She tried to struggle, but found it was too much effort for her weak state.

Within minutes, of being picked up by Pitch, she had fallen asleep in his arms. When she woke up, she was sleeping in a battered golden cage, a very large one at that. The realization that she had been kidnapped by Pitch sent her into a panic. She shook at the cage, tried to pick the lock, but there was nothing she could do. Her chest heaved up and down in panic when a sudden thought arose from her. Was he really the enemy if he went through all the trouble to save her? He could have just let her die, why didn't he? She looked at the bandages covering her arms; they were also in golden shackles. "Why?" She muttered to herself. "Because I'm not going to let someone as… interesting as you die. You're different from the others. And it truly fascinates me." Pitch commented to her, watching her from a nearby ledge. Had he been watching her this entire time? "Am I just some specimen to you? Is that why I'm in a cage?"She said angrily, while she stood up and shook the bars. Pitch gave her a serious look as her floated up to the cage. "The reason you're in this cage right now is because if I let you sit here, free, you would most likely run away. And due to the fact that I saved your life, I think you owe me something in return." He stated in a grave tone. Raven calmed herself down and sat on the gold floor of her imprisonment. "You're right. Thank you, so much. I'm not sure if anyone else would have stopped to save me… What could I do to make up for something like saving my life?" She said, looking grimly down at her feet. Pitch unlocked the cages and took off her shackles. "All I need," he whispered "is someone to talk to"

Raven smiled at this. She even let out a slight chuckle. "What's so funny about wanting a companion?" Pitch questioned. Raven looked at him through the bars. "Nothing, it's just, the nightmare king, the man who brings terror to grown men at night needs someone to talk to?" Raven retorted. "It's fine though, everyone needs to tell someone everything about their life" She said, regaining her composure and using an open personality.

Pitch unlocked the cage. Raven would have run at that moment, but she wanted to hear this story that Pitch had to tell. She had turned into a more curious being, and she did owe it to him for saving her life. He then closed the door behind him. This made Raven have a mini-heart attack. Pitch grinned at the sudden bit of fear that sprouted in her. "Relax, I've got a key." He said, swinging the key around his thin index finger.

He began his story, first walking around in a circle in the cage while Raven sat in the middle. He gradually drew closer and closer, and Raven grew more engrossed in his life story by the minute. By the end, they were mere inches from eachother, Raven wide-eyed with attention. The narrative came to an end, and Pitch sat down next to her. He looked at her with lost eyes. "That's it," he ended, looking down at the ground "I'm sorry, I've just never told anyone all of this…" his voice began to waver. Raven felt so much compassion for him, all the sorrow he must have felt all these years with no one to talk to. She could relate to that. She outstretched her arms and hugged him, wrapping her wings around him and comforting the nightmare king. "Thanks' he muttered, as he held onto her tighter, wishing she would never let go. Raven let go, and looked deeply into Pitch's golden eyes. "No, thank you." She said, grabbing his cold hands. "But why?" he inquired. Raven laughed " I've never had someone talk to me for so long… It made me feel… wanted…" she confessed "Thank you for that"

Raven retracted her wings into her back now, a talent she had recently mastered. Pitch took the opportunity to softly grab her waist and pull her onto his lap. She sat there while he hugged her waist and smelled her hair. He then whispered into her ear: "It's your turn, now. Tell me anything, everything if you wanted."