North tucked away the little trinket, and in the next moment all hell broke loose. Night Mare's surrounded us in an instant, appearing out of nowhere. The four of us backed into a tight circle, grasping onto our weapons for dear life. I dropped the canister of teeth as Pitch stepped in front of me, a mere foot away. He leaned in close, and I backed up closer to the group.

"Did you really think that you could just run away, and get away with it?" A slender hand reached out to caress my face, and flinched, holding out my sword.

"Stay away from her, Pitch." Jack growled, stepping halfway in front of me.

"I'm fine, Frost." I said, nudging him out of the way. He doubled over, dropping his staff, and clutching his stomach. "Frost?! Are you alright?" I kneeled down, and touched his back as gently as possible. He was shaking. "What did you do, Pitch?"

"Me?" Said the Boogey Man innocently. "I didn't do anything. His snow is melting when it shouldn't be, and the children have decided that their…" he took another step forward, and kicked Jack onto his back, "Precious Jack Frost, isn't as all powerful as he might be."

I pushed him away. "Don't you dare! This isn't between you and him. This is between us, so we're going to finish it right now!" I said bravely swishing the sword around. Nothing happened though. There weren't any leaves, or crows, or wind, or even a little air swishing. The Night Mare's whinnied as their hooves stamped the ground.

"Aww…don't get too scared now. You should understand by now, my dear, how sensitive they are."

"Get away from her, Pitch." Bunny snarled as North tried to help Jack up from the ground.

"Only when she decides that she doesn't want to be near me." In a flourish, he pulled me into his arms, and there was darkness. Everything was blacker, and drearier than I had ever seen, but I still felt cold arms around me, which, in a twisted way, reminded me that I wasn't dead.

"Oh, how you must have thought that it was all over with. That's almost pathetic."

"Let go of me, Pitch!" I cried as we landed, and the darkness disappeared. We were in the middle of a leafy forest. "LET GO." I said, ripping away. "After what you did to Tooth and Sandy, there is no way I would ever even consider you to be-"

"I'm not here to continue our little romance." He said blandly. "I'm here to finish things." He answered darkly, rising up on a cloud of dark sand.

"You can't beat me." I said confidently.

"Oh, really? You can't possibly be that stupid, Roselyn."

"You don't deserve to speak my name."

"I'll speak whatever I choose." He sneered. The sand rushed around him more and more furiously with every second that passed. I held onto the sword, swaying this way, and that as his Night Mares reared up around us.

"Can't fight on your own?" I shrugged.

"Don't try to play that card. I'm sure that I'm powerful enough to destroy you on my own, but if that furious North, and Bunny, and Jack Frost happen to show up they may be a bit more furious than you. Especially Frost."

"Why Frost?" I asked, stalling, and concentrating.

"Maybe you really are stupid." He spat. "He has some sort of terrible, little-boy crush on you. Can't you see?"

"No, he doesn't. Don't try to get in my head, Pitch."

"I'm already there, though, aren't I?"

"No, you're not." I challenged. Well, he took it as one anyway. Swirls of blackness shot out from his perch, aimed at me. I didn't have anywhere else to run, so I swung the sword. The blackness turned to burnt leaves that floated gently to the ground. "I don't want to fight, Pitch!"

"Then how do you propose I get rid of you?"

Another shot of blackness came, but I fended it away almost as easily as the last. I was fuming, but tried to keep calm on the outside. If I got too overwhelmed his Night Mares would show up, and then I'd really be done for.

"Roe?" A soft, little voice echoed from behind me. It was Mina, the only little girl who could see me.

"Mina! What are you doing? Go home!"

"She can stay if she wants, Roselyn! She watch her own precious Guardian fall to the ground, like the rest of them will soon enough!" Pitch screeched.

I kept my eyes locked on him.

"I'm not leaving."

"Mina," I glanced back at her defiant, little face. "Alright, answer me this. Do you believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Sand Man, the Tooth Fairy, and Jack Frost?"

"I believe in you."

"You have to believe in more than just me, Mina. Please do you believe in the Tooth Fairy, and the Sand Man."

"I do."

"Do you believe in Jack Frost?" I asked hurriedly, slashing away another spiral of black that became pretty, orange birds this time. The snow around us billowed up, and rained back down again with the wind. "He's in quite a bit of trouble right now, and only kids like you who believe can save him, and the rest of them."

"I believe in him. He comes by here too much though."

I laughed in spite of myself. "I'll remind him not to hang around too much the next time we get to talk." I panted the words out, slashing this way, and that at the blackness.

"I can do this forever! You're not hurting me, Roselyn!"

"That's because I'm not like you! I don't like hurting people! I'm not going to hurt anyone!" I heard doors creaking open, and kids jumping through the snow. More children were coming out here. At least they were all behind me. I really needed them all to go back inside now. I didn't want them to see this.

"What are looking at, Mina?" A little boy said, out of breath. "Who is that?!" He sounded terrified. I had almost forgotten that the only one who could see me was Mina.

"There's a girl up there protecting us! Her name is Roe, can't you see her?" She asked softly. A gust of wind blew by, and the leaves that had grown into a thin layer on the ground billowed back toward the children.

Two of them gasped. "I see her!"

A simple surge seemed to rise through me. I felt empowered, and not just by own pride. It was their belief that made me stronger. I stared intently at Pitch. He looked weaker. A shoot of black almost hit one of the twin boys, and they came running up with Mina a few inches behind me. They looked about ten, with short, blond hair, and dark brown eyes.

I felt a tug at my dress.

"Roe, he almost hit Toby, I'm scared."

"I'm not going to let him hurt you. You'll be fine, alright?"

"You think you can actually protect these children?! You don't even know who you are!"

"I know who I was!"

"What does that matter if you can barely control your powers?! You don't even know what your center is!" He taunted.

I haphazardly swung; holding onto the hilt for dear life as he nearly hit the twins. My brief high was waning fast, and was almost to my knees. He was too strong for me, and he was right. I didn't even know what my center was. I wasn't anything. A shock of black hit me square in the chest, and fell back onto the ground with a small thud.

As I struggled to my feet, Pitch began talking again, but not to me.

"Back again, Frost, to save your precious, new Guardian?" He spat. I slowly raised my eyes to see Jack floating eye-level with Pitch. His normally clear eyes looked like they held a blizzard. The temperature seemed to lower almost immediately. "You need help from his just because you're too incompetent to figure out your own center?! This is sad, and oh-so-wonderful at the same time. I know that you're much younger than this moron, but I would think that you wouldn't need so much help."

"Stop this, Pitch." Jack said coldly. "Get out of here."

"You think you're ice can stop me now? I'm so much stronger than you think! She can't stop me! You can't stop me! And nearly half of the Guardians are gone!"

"You're wrong." He said, almost too calmly, shooting ice, and snow this way and that aimed at Pitch.

The kids clutched onto my dress, as the argument drew on, and on. I stood there silently, observing both of them.

"Get the kids back to their houses, Frost." I coughed from the sidelines. He glanced down at me; dirty, bruised, and beaten. And he listened to me. "You're a very broken man, Pitch. You're so upset because you've lost so many people so dear to you, and people fear you because that's how you were created, and that's not fair. Honestly, it's quite remarkable that you've even hauled yourself out of wherever, and have gone along so successfully with your plan because of all of the pain you've endured. It's a nice thought that someone like you can still have hope for something. But that doesn't excuse any of this."

"ENOUGH!" He roared.

"That's my center, isn't it? I see the beauty in everything, and I can help others see the beauty too."

"STOP!"

"People need something good to believe in, Pitch, and you're just not that. You could be though. You could change yourself, and you could be something children want to believe in."

"They do! They do believe in me!" He cried, lowering down to the ground. He seemed to shrink into the ground.

"Nobody truly believes in something they fear." I whispered.

He was slowly engulfed by his own darkness once again.


This actually has the least amount of words out of all of the chapters, so...umm, sorry I guess, but that wasn't really the point. I don't think I needed too many words for this chapter. Well, did any of you guess what her center is? I know it's a bit...off, but kids just see the good in almost anything, and so Roe kind of stands for that. In a way it sort of goes with Bunny's whole thing of Hope, but her's in more specifically seeing the beauty in things not necessarily having hope. Not looking into the future or having a fresh start, just seeing things in a pretty light.