Hey guys. Sorry this chapters a little on the short side. This is more or less a filler chapter because this story is progressing so much faster than orignally thought. I know what I want to happen next but I just don't want it to happen just yet and thus this chapter is born.

But hey look at it this way, this just makes the story longer and we get to see Faith interacting with the other Guardians.

Anyway Rise of the Guardians belongs to Dreamworks and William Joyce.

Faith belongs to me.

Enjoy! :D

Faith sighed to herself as she checked through her backpack. It was the last day of winter vacation and tomorrow she'd be going back to school.

And back to the bullies.

"Something wrong honey?"

Faith jumped startled slightly and looked up seeing Grandma Carol standing in the doorway. "Nothing Grandma."

The elderly woman frowned sympathetically and shuffled into the room and bent down to be eye level with her granddaughter. "You worried about those bullies at school?"

Faith blinked in surprise. "How did you-"

"Grandmother's intuition." Carol smirked. "And despite what your mother says, just because I'm old doesn't make me senile and oblivious to what's going on."

Faith snorted slightly in a laugh but her smile fell and she hugged her legs to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. "Kinda."

Carol patted the blonde girls shoulder and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "Oh honey I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." Faith said quietly. "But I'll be fine. I only have to put up with Kevin and the others for a little while longer. Then once I graduate I'll never have to see or deal with them again."

"Atta girl keeping your chin up." Carol smiled. "In the meantime you know you can always confide in me."

"I know Grandma." Faith smiled and hugged her grandmother.

"Now if you'd excuse me," Carol said once they broke the hug and she got to her feet. "But I gotta go and meet the girls for poker."

Faith shook her head. "You know, most grandmother's knit or go play bingo."

"I'm not most grandmothers." Carol chuckled with a wink and left the room.

"You most certainly are not." Faith laughed quietly and rose to her feet, kicking her backpack out of the way. She looked out the window and admired the white sparkly snow on the ground.

"Jack outdid himself this time." Faith smiled. She suddenly perked up and realized something. "Hey, what am I doing? I got one day a freedom left. Why am I spending it cooped up inside?"

And with that the brown eyed girl quickly turned and raced out of her room, down the hall and down the stairs.

"Mom? Mom where are you?"

"In the kitchen." Diane's voice called. Faith peeked in and saw her mother sitting at the kitchen table; laptop open, papers surrounding her and her fingers typing furiously away at on her phone. Most likely texting Derek and giving him more orders.

"I'm going out for a little while but I'll be back by dinner." Faith quickly explained.

"And where exactly are you "going out" too?" Diane asked not looking up from her phone.

"With a friend." Faith said. Well it wasn't a lie. Jack was her friend.

"Jessie?" Mrs. Rodlyn guessed finally finishing her text and grabbed her mug taking a sip of coffee.

Faith felt a small jab in the pit of her stomach at the mention of her ex friend. Jessie, like everyone else had stopped being friends with Faith for her still believing in the Guardians.

"Mom Jessie and I haven't been friends for years." Faith said before quietly adding under her breath. "You should have known that."

Diane stopped drinking her coffee and looked at her daughter feeling sheepish. "Oh sorry...So uh, wh-who's the friend?"

"Jack." Faith answered quickly, eager to go.

"Jack who?"

"Jack Fro-Oops." Faith covered her mouth with her hands while Diane cocked an eyebrow. "Jack Oops?"

"No, no. His name is Jack...Fro...man. Jack Froman! Yeah yeah that's his name...Jack Froman." Faith said forcing a smile.

Her mother raised an eyebrow. "Jack Froman?"

"Yeah. J-Jack's uh, new in town and we met on the first day of winter break when I went skating. We've been hanging out a lot since. He's really nice."

Diane gave her daughter a quizical look but shrugged and turned back to her computer. "Alright. Just be back by dinner time."

"I will. Bye Mom." Faith chirped excitedly and then ran to the door, threw on her scarf, coat and boots and then was out the door.

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"Jack?" Faith called walking down the snow covered streets. "Jaaack? Where are-GYAH!" Faith jumped back startled as the winter spirit suddenly appeared before her hanging upside down.

"You called?" Jack smirked hanging upside down from a tree branch.

"I wish you'd stop doing that!" Faith chastised.

"Sorry." the frosty teen apologized jumping down from the tree branch and righting himself. "Anyway, what's up?"

"I was hoping maybe we could hang out today." Faith said rubbing her arm. "You see I'm gonna be going back to school tomorrow so this is sorta the last day we'd be able to hang out for awhile."

Jack's smile fell. He knew all about what it was like waiting for school to let out to play with Jamie and Sophie. "Aw man."

"Yeah I know. It sucks." Faith frowned digging her hands into her coat pockets. "But hey we still got after school. And all of today too. Let's make the most of it."

Jack looked up and smiled slightly at her. "Yeah. Your right...And I know just what to do."

"Should I be afraid?" Faith asked semi kidding.

"No. You'll like this."

And without another word, the white haired boy scooped up the blonde haired girl and they took off to the sky.

"Where are we going?" Faith shouted over the howling winds, holding on tightly to Jack.

"I was on my way to visit Tooth when I heard you calling. She won't mind an extra visitor."

Faith's chocolate brown eyes widened. "Wait, you mean your actually taking me to Tooth's house?"

"Palace actually." Jack corrected.

"You sure it's alright?"

"Sure I'm sure!" he reassured. "Now hold on."

Jack held up his staff and Faith tightened her grip on him as they began to fly at hyper speed.

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"Whoa..." Faith breathed in aw as they came upon the Tooth Palace. Contrary to popular belief the palace wasn't actually made out of teeth but instead out of some type of fine stone, tainted a pinkish purple color with streaks of blue, yellow and green. They flew in and watched as mini fairies bustled to and fro either carrying teeth or quarters.

"This place if beautiful." Faith said in awe as she and Jack landed on the floor and he let her down.

"Why thank you."

Faith turned around and smiled as the Tooth Fairy flew over. "Hi Tooth."

"What are you doing here? Not that I mind of coarse." The bird woman said.

"I was on my way to see you when I ran into Faith so I brought her along." Jack explained. "Hope you don't mind."

"Not at all." Tooth chirped. "The girls and I love having guests."

As if on cue, about fifteen mini fairies suddenly flew over and began to circle around Jack, chirping and squeaking excitedly.

"Looks like you got yourself a fanclub." Faith laughed as Jack found himself surrounded by the mini fairies. Baby Tooth made herself comfortable by snuggling inside the hood of Jack's sweater, sticking her tongue out at her 'sisters'.

"Alright girls. You can visit Jack later. Get back to work." Tooth ordered clapping her hands. The mini fairies let out squeaks of protest and flew off back to their duties.

"You sure have a lot of helpers." Faith mused as she took notice of all the fairies. "How many exactly do you have?"

"About five hundred and thirty-six. Give or take." Tooth explained waving her hand in a so-so motion.

"Dang...big family." Faith said wide-eyed causing Jack to laugh.

"Anyway, why don't I show you around?" Tooth asked changing the subject and flittered forward. "Come on!"

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"And here is where we keep all the teeth that the children of the world lose." Tooth explained as she lead the two into a room near the back of the palace. From floor to ceiling the walls were lined small cylinder like containers. Each one had the picture of a child's face on it. Faith watched as a mini fairy carrying a tooth flew over to one of the pictures and pressed on it. The canister popped out of the wall and inside nestled the canister lined with purple silk were a few baby teeth. The Mini fairy chirped and gently placed the new tooth inside before pushing it back into the wall and flying off.

"Wow. Lotta teeth." Faith mused almost feeling dizzy as she looked at the sheer number of containers.

"This isn't even half of them. We got more all over the place." Tooth said. "We have every single persons teeth dating back thousands of years."

"Even mine." Jack added.

"What do you do with the teeth exactly? I've always wondered that." Faith asked.

The Tooth Fairy flapped her wings and smirked. "Believe it or not, baby teeth contain memories."

"Memories?" Faith asked quirking an eyebrow.

Toothiana simply nodded. "Yes, memories. And when a child is going through a rough time, it's my job to help them remember."

She motioned for the human girl to follow and Tooth led them into a lower part of the floating palace. It almost seemed like a garden of sorts. The brown eyed girl looked up and found herself staring at a mural on the wall. The mural depicted Tooth and some of her helpers floating in front of a group of children. In the Tooth mural's hands she held one of the tooth canisters and seemed to be handing it to one of the children.

"I...I never realized just how important your job is Tooth." Faith said a little bit stunned.

Tooth just shrugged. "Even with all my helpers it can get overwhelming from time to time. But I when I look at the children..." she trailed off also looking at the mural, putting her hand on the wall. "When we return those memories and are able to comfort them...It makes it all worthwhile."

Faith looked to the Tooth Fairy and saw her in a different light. "Thank you."

Tooth blinked her amethyest eyes and looked at the girl in confusion. "What?"

"I said thank you. For all that you do." Faith said rubbing the back of her neck.

Toothiana smiled at the girl touched. No one had ever really thanked her before. It felt...nice. "It's nothing."

The two women smiled at each other but were distracted by a clinking sound. They turned around and spotted a sheepish looking Jack holding one of the tooth canisters in his hand with about five others on the floor at his barefeet.

"Oops...Sorry."

"Oh Jack!" Tooth exclaimed flying over. "What were you doing?"

"Nothing." the winter spirit answered as he bent down to help the two pick up the canisters.

Tooth didn't buy it and snatched the canister from his pale icy-cold hand and looked at the picture of the face on the bottom. The hummingbird hybrid narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "Oh so you weren't trying to go through Faith's memories?"

Obviously that caught said girls attention. "My memories?"

The two legends looked to the girl and then back at the canister in Tooth's hands. "Yes. These are your baby teeth." Tooth said as she passed the cylinder to the girl.

Faith sat on her knees and looked at the golden case. Sure enough on one end was a small picture of a younger her. One side of the cylinder was flat and had a sort of stain glass window design.

"Can I...Can I look open it?"

Tooth shrugged. "They're your memories."

Faith looked down at the container again and gently touched her fingers on the flat part. Almost immediately the designs began to flip themselves over and the canister began to glow.

Before Faith's eyes she was transported back in time. The first memory was of a three year old her being pushed on the swings by a brown haired brown eyed man.

"Higher Daddy! Higher!" Three year old Faith squealed with excitement.

The memory now switched and Faith was now six and was laughing and squealing as her father pinned her on the ground and was tickling her.

"Raaawr! The tickle monsters gonna get you!" Faith's father growled.

"Hahahah! S-Stop! Stop it Daddy-heheheheh." Six year old Faith laughed. "M-Mommy help!"

"What is going on in here?" a younger version of Diane asked walking into the room. Her hair was longer and her cellphone was nowhere in sight. Faith's father looked up at his wife and with three long sprints he was at his wifes side, scooped the woman up and twirled her around.

"Oh!" Diane let out a startled yelp but laughed when he collapsed onto the couch with her in his lap. Faith laughed and ran over jumping on her father's lap as well.

The memory switched again and Faith was eleven now. It was Christmas time and Faith sat on her knees ripping at a present and lifting off the lid.

"A puppy!" Faith yelled excitedly as a small gray and white husky pup leaped out of the box and licked her cheek.

Faith blinked and shook her head snapping back to present time. She looked down at the canister in her hand and bit her bottom lip.

"You okay Faith?" Jack as concerned scooting closer to the girl.

"Huh?" Faith asked snapping out of it. "Oh, um...yeah...I'm fine."

"You saw some sad memories?" Tooth guessed.

"No it's just...I saw my Dad again." Faith whispered looking down at her baby teeth.

Jack unknowingly tightened his grip on his staff and Tooth's feathers ruffled. By the tone of the girls voice they could easily geuss that something bad had happened to her father.

"You wanna talk about it?" Jack asked quietly placing a hand on her shoulder.

Faith shook her head. "Not really. Not right now anyway."

The three sat their in awkward silence for a few good minutes till Faith lifted her head up.

"Hey it's in the past." Faith said forcing a smile and stood up. "Let's go do something fun."

Jack perked his ears up and grinned. "You said the magic word."

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"Ugh!" Faith groaned later that night as she tossed in her bed for the millionth time that night. She was afraid this would happen. She knew she shouldn't have made herself that cup of hot chocolate before bed. She knew it would keep her up but those dang marshmallows were calling her name. And now here she was wide awake at 12:18, lying on her back and staring at the dark ceiling.

She let out a sigh and kicked the covers off her. Grandma Carol always said that warm milk helps a person to fall asleep. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, stuck her feet in her slippers and then started downstairs for the kitchen.

Faith held back a laugh as she passed by the den and heard a loud snore coming from North Star. The dog could snore loud enough to wake the dead. Without bothering to turn on the light, she entered the kitchen and opened the fridge and poured herself a mug of milk and stuck it in the microwave. Just as she was about to press the power button though...

"What the...?" Faith trailed off as she spotted something gold outside the window. Forgetting about the milk, she got closer and peeked outside. She rubbed her eyes not believeing what she was seeing. Everywhere she looked outside what looked like golden sparkly tendrils twisted and turned outside coming down from above.

Faith ran away from the window and ran outside dressed in nothing but her pajamas. A wide smile pulled at her lips as she followed the golden strands to the middle of town. One of the tendrils floated down to her and circled around her causing the older girl to giggle. She looked upward and followed the tendril to it's source and saw that it was coming from a golden cloud and standing ontop of the cloud was none other than the Sandman himself.

"Sandy!"

The Guardian of Dreams whipped around at hearing his name and looked down, fairly surprised to see Faith. He waved his hands and lowered the dream cloud down to her level. He smiled and waved at the teenage girl but a question mark soon formed over his head.

"What am I doing here?"

Sandy nodded.

"Oh well I couldn't sleep." Faith explained. "I went to the kitchen to make myself some warm milk but I saw those things" she pointed to the dream tendrils. "Out my window so I came to investigate and well, kinda followed them here."

The silent Guardian seemed to chuckle and shook his head. One another tendrils snaked it's way over to them and Sandy gently touched it. To Faith's amazment at the touch the golden sand shifted and morphed into the shape of three butterflies. The dream sand butterflies flapped their wings and flew around Faith causing her to laugh with glee. She held out her hand and allowed one of the butterflies to land in her palm. The butterfly flapped it's wings and then took back off into the sky.

Faith went up to another tendril and held her hand out to it but stopped unsure if she should touch it or not. She looked to Sandy and the Guardian of Dreams nodded.

The blonde haired girl looked back at the tendril and gently touched it. The tendril obviously felt like sand but it also felt warm. Suddenly the sand began to shift and took the form of a large bird. Faith smiled as the bird cricled around her, but jumped back in surprise as the sand shifted around the bird once more and made it look like the bird was …..on fire?

"A phoenix!" Faith exclaimed excitedly. The phoenix screetched and flew around the girl once more. Sandy clapped his hands excitedly and held out his arm allowing the phoenix to land on it.

He then looked at Faith and made a miniature image of her crawling back into a bed.

"Aw! Not yet." Faith protested. "Please just let me stay here with you for a little while longer? I promise I won't be any trouble."

The Sandman pursed his lips in thought before finally shrugging and nodded.

"Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Faith exclaimed. After spending about an hour or so outside, Faith lack of sleep began to catch up to her and she bid Sandman farewell and returned home.

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Once Sandy had finished giving dreams to all the children in Burgess, he morphed his dreamcloud into an airplane and prepared to fly off to another part of the world to give dreams but paused and glanced in the direction of Faith's house. With a smile and a shrug Sandy flew his plane over there and peeked into her bedroom window. He spotted the sleeping girl in her bed and sent in a tendril through the slightly open window. The tendril touched her head and then morphed into the shape of a phoenix. Faith smiled in her sleep as the firey bird soared above her head. Sandman nodded to himself, pleased with his work and then flew off to his other duties.

Once he was gone however, the shadows on the wall shifted and slinked over to the sleeping girl. A pair of yellow eyes blinked open from the shadows and looked down at the peacefully sleeping teenager. Specifically at the phoenix she was dreaming about.

A sickly gray colored hand reached out from the shadows and touched the phoenix. The fire bird screetched in pain and the gold sand it was made out of began to turn black. Pitch black.

The phoenix withered around until all traces of it's golden coloring was gone. It's eyes glowed an evil yellow and black flames engulfed it. Faith's smile fell and she cringed in her sleep as the nightmare plagued her dreams.

"Oh there, there my dear." a silky smooth voice yet chilling voice sneered from the darkness. "Best to get used to your fear. This is only the beginning."

Don't forget to review! See you next chapter!