"So, what exactly do you do?" Rabbit-boy asks skeptically, fuzzy eyebrows raised in my general direction. I brush my just shorter than shoulder-length, ink-black hair out of my eyes and rest my head on the palm of my hand, staring up at them from my cross-legged position on the floor.

"I fire golden, courage-dipped arrows at dark shadow portals and dissipate the matter of the bad dreams Nightmares emit when in range of children as well as give kids courage, strength of will and protection." I say, summing up my job.

They stare at me, not really getting what shadow portals or what the matter of nightmares is or why golden arrows.

I sigh and rephrase, "I shoot things at stuff."

"Oh! That's what you meant!" The Tooth Fairy says cheerfully.

"Why do you do that...we know Nightmares are from Pitch, but if this is part of your regular job description, they must be pretty common. Why were we not alerted of these Nightmares?" North asks, narrowing his eyes.

I shrug and reply simply, "It's always been like this; past four hundred years or so. You only need to know when it getsout of hand...which it didn't until this last century year, which was when I found out even the Guardians didn't believe in me; only Pitch and my Archers."

"Heh-heh." The Guardians look a tad embarassed at this realization.

"But why can't kids believe in you?" The Tooth Fairy asks, concerned, "How do you function?"

"If kids believe in me, they often will make the mistake of believing that I can't always protect them; they start fearing Pitch." I say answering the first question before moving on, "I survive off of the kids sub-concious knowledge that I've protected them; it's kind of like...they believe in me, but only in the very back of their mind. My name can be on the tip of their tounge but it will never be said seriously."

"Oh."

My unnaturally shimmering dark-silver eyes snap up, one eyebrow arched, "I was not seeking pity." My past's vocabulary peaking through; people these days use conjunctions and rarely say "seeking". It stings a little, remembering when everyone around me spoke properly. That was a long time ago.

The Tooth Fairys feathers ruffle in surprise, but her demeanor remains unchanged. "I didn't say you were. Though I'd be lying if I didn't feel a little sad for you."

Jack nods as well, "Yeah, being invisible can really stink."

I look at them in surprise, "It's what I've known, and will know forever. No point in trying to change it. I'll always do whatever it takes to do my job and more; I can't afford to waste my energy on trivial things that I cannot acheive." I keep my voice firm, reassuring more myself than they.

Jack sits down next to me, stares me straight in the face and declares, "You're still a person, metal-eyes or no."

I smirk, he's right. My eyes are oddly metalic, they would scare little kids if they could see me. For whatever reason, I don't particularily mind at the moment. Jack seems to like them, anyways.

North chuckles, amused at my new nickname, "Metal-eyes indeed. You ought to fire silver arrows instead of gold!"

Sandman rolls his eyes, half-smiling. Bunnymund just snickers, muttering about some random thing or another, I can't be sure what.

Eep! Eep! My wrist blares at me. The corners of my lips straighten out, my face sterner and meaner than it was a mere second ago. Three portals and four Nightmares! What luck. My mood sours, the others look at me questions written between the creases of their foreheads.

"I must leave; portal and Nightmares on the loose in New York City." I say, grabbing my cloak and quiver off the floor and turning to leave.

Jack steps forwards and says, "Mind if I tag along?"

All I do is blink, surprised. I hear myself say, "Uh, sure." Very well said, eh? So well said I have half a mind to swallow the words back down before they reach Jack's ears. Whoops, too late.

Jack shoots me a wicked grin and says, "The wind or...wait, how do you travel?"

I look at him, perfectly seriously and reply, "I tend to walk."

His mouth hangs open. I laugh and say, "You bought that? I travel by height."

"By what?"

"By height; you stand on something tall, you jump off and think of the place you want to be, and when you hit the ground you're in that place. It takes a lot of concentration, so we'll have to link so you don't get sidetracked and lost mid-fall. That sucks because you're frozen until another traveler traves to that same place, then you're fine."

"Let's just walk."

"You sure this is safe?" Jack asks me uncertianly, eyes wide and the inside of his cheek being victimized to nervous chewing.

"Yep, it's safe." I say seriously, trying to reassure him. I hold out my hand, and he takes it as I say, "Ready?" He opens his mouth to answer "No", but I don't wait. I jump from the balcony and drag Jack down with me. Picturing the abandoned subway station, just outside of the city; can't have anyone seeing two random teens just suddenly appear, quite literally, out of nowhere.

Jack lands unsteadily next to her, his pale skin holding a faint, greenish tint.

"It's like traveling through a twisty slide; spinning and turning in a huge tunnel." I explain, chuckling at his green-ness. "C'mon. We'll scale the building above us and travel by rooftop."

"That doesn't involve more twisty-slide-puke tunnels does it?" Jack teases, his old self (and smirk-like grin) returning and I can't help but smile a bit, too.