I do not own Harry Potter or Rise of the Guardians. WARNING: Drowning and minor character death!

Chapter 9

Merith woke slowly with a soft moan as he blearily looked at his surroundings. Soft clinking met his ears; further movement had him wide alert and wary. Silver chains linked delicately from his bound wrists to trail six feet away where it melded seamlessly into the floor which was covered in intricate, yet unfamiliar runes probably meant to both conceal the room from others as well as make leaving impossible. Still dazed from using an immense amount of power in a short period of time, Merith glanced at what appeared to be his prison cell. Immediately he noticed that the Guardians probably had a hand in his prison accommodations, their remaining guilt showed in his rather comfortable cell.

The cell itself was an off white color and emitted a dull glow that allowed Merith enough light to make out his surroundings, but not enough to make a defined shadow; probably so that Pitch wouldn't be able to find him through the shadows. It was only now that Merith fully appreciated the fact that he and Pitch were private people by nature and thus hadn't shared all the details of their relationship. Merith confidently lifted his hand to thumb at the ever constant rings on his fingers only to feel nothing. His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at his completely bare fingers, lacking the comforting weight of the ring he shared with his soulmate and his foci that'd been his aide all these centuries since being chosen as Master of Death. Without his foci ring, he couldn't use magic, slip into the Nether Realm, or summon his familiars to help him escape. And without his ring, the one-of-a-kind ring that connected him to his mate, he had no way of reassuring himself of Pitch's wellbeing or vice versa. He was literally locked up in this room, hidden by away by the Guardians like some useless little damsel, and stuck here due to their inability to handle their guilt face to face.

Merith held himself together by sheer willpower, he didn't want to collapse to the ground and wail about everything wrong about his life anymore, that's not who he was and it was that behavior that got him stuck here in the first place. No, now wasn't the time to think about the betrayal of his so called fellow Guardians and their leader MiM, for it was only the celestial being that would've had the knowledge, power, and authority to successfully separate and lock Merith away. Deciding that focusing on where he was and how to possibly escape, Merith began examining his cell.

The room was twelve feet by twelve with no doors or windows. Against one wall, a full sized bed made of pure dream sand rested, designed to induce constant pleasant dreams to the sleeper and never fall apart even if its creator wasn't near. Against another wall was an entire bookshelf, filled with tomes and scrolls of all sizes as well as all the trinkets he could imagine to entertain himself; probably the touch of North thought Merith with disdain as he glanced at shelf after shelf of knick knacks and toys. At the wall opposite the bed, rested a chest and closet probably filled with clothes; though seeing how his hands were bound, having shirts was rather pointless. In the corner furthest away from the bed was a deep hole that he assumed was his toilet.

'Sometimes I miss the 16th century for the best creation of mankind: indoor plumbing.'

Near the toilet was...flowers growing from the wall? As Merith got closer to examine, he realized that actual flowers were growing straight out of the wall, all varying sizes and colors; breeds that would never grow together thriving in harmony. Noting that some buds hadn't blossomed yet despite being mature enough, he cautiously poked it, only for it to reveal soap...shaped like a very decorative Easter egg. Suddenly, a deluge of warm water from what appeared to be a cloudy mist that some of the flowers was secreting and caused a drenched Merith to back away in shock, watching as the flowers sucked the mist back into their petals and as the water was quickly absorbed by the roots until it appeared that nothing had happened, except for the fact that Merith was soaked and shivering in his torn robes.

Peeling off torn bits of robe, Merith plodded wetly over to the closet and luckily found some towels to quickly wipe down. Spotting no pants in the closet, he switched to the chest, opening it to find neatly folded white collared shirts and black pants. Despite still being damp, he quickly put on the pants and picked up a shirt until he realized that with the chains a shirt was impossible to put on. In a fit of rage, Merith tossed the shirt across the room, and tried to channel his magic to break out of the chains. It was a fruitless endeavor as the many decades of being reliant on his foci had made him dependent on using it as a crutch, but that was all his fault that he became lazy enough to avoid training in the art of magic without a foci. It was going to take him a long time to be able to both gather enough magic and skill to break out of this prison, for Merith refused to wait like a damned damsel or for the Guardians to successfully hide their guilt by permanently keeping him here. He wasn't the Master of Death for nothing, so he'd be better off pulling himself for his sake and the sake of his other half. The one he should've been there for after the trauma of losing their child, to console and defend each other against the Guardians that did this to them. Huffing out in irritation, Merith sat gingerly on the bed as he cleared his mind, falling into a meditative trance.

Beyond the Gate, the glowing spirit carefully cradled the new soul in its arms as it hurriedly floated to the Center Plaza, where souls of children were sorted for rebirth. Only made for children below the age of ten that were given an automatic rebirth as compared to the souls departing from a longer life in the mortal who then have to be judged for their past deeds and next placement in Rebirth, Recounsel, or Redesignate. Slowing down as it approached a Selector, the spirit held out its precious bundle for examination. A flicker of sorrow was emitted at the sight of the new soul.

"The newly created soul designated as the child of the Master of Death and the Boogeyman. Already passing the Gates after just being sent out into the world for the first time; such a shame, it would've had quite a story to tell." hummed the Sorter as it picked up the soul.

"Don't fret, for I think this little one will still have more to do out there, don't you agree little one?"

The newborn soul stirred restlessly in the Sorter's arms, reaching out for the comforting presence of its bearer, whining out in displeasure when he was nowhere to be found. Calmly soothing the young soul, the Sorter left the spirit and headed towards the busiest area of the Center Plaza, the Pool of Rebirth. Settling by the edge of the Pool, the Sorter gazed into its depths intently. Like many of its fellow Sorters, once a soul was granted rebirth, it was the job of the Sorter to determine where in the mortal realm the soul would be placed, whether they would start off their new life born in the squalors of Europe or raised by the Chinese royalty; they determined the start of each child's life, which would leave imprints onto the soul as subconscious knowledge for the next life. But this soul had barely been in the mortal realm, meaning it could still be treated as a newly created soul.

"I wish you a better chance in this lifetime, I feel that we won't meet again for a long time, little one. May you experience much." murmured the Sorter as it gently submerged the soul into the liquid image of its new body and birth mother.

(Human Realm)

"Aaahhh!"

"One more push, just give me one more push!" yelled the old midwife between the legs of the birthing mother.

With a painful grunt and a final scream, the teary eyed woman fell to the bed in dazed relief as a baby's cry rang through the air. The next few minutes blurred before her eyes until a baby snuggly wrapped in blankets was placed in her arms. Tired eyes opened to meet sleepy brown ones as they observed the world for the first time. The woman smiled tiredly at her newborn already falling asleep.

"Hello, my son. Welcome to the world, Jackson Overland."

~ODF~

A little girl was happily playing by the river near her village, letting her imagination run wild as she carelessly hopped from place. She usually heeded her mother's warning about being unsupervised when near the river, but the cute butcher boy had given her a lovely flower today and it had made her so happy that she dashed off to her favorite spot by the river.

Now loudly humming, she began to hop on the river rocks; unaware that she was getting uncomfortably close to the river's edge until with a startled scream, she slipped on a mossy rock and plunged into the cold river. Disoriented and in slight shock, the little brunette attempted to swim towards the surface, but instead was dragged down to the bottom where the current was the strongest. Further disoriented as she was flipped head over heels, her lungs burning from the lack of oxygen as she made another attempt to reach the surface before a broken tree branch clipped her on the head. She gasped in pain, causing her to choke as water filled her mouth. Feebly making a last attempt, the girl reached up to where she thought she saw light, but her limbs were getting heavy, she was feeling lightheaded, and so tired. Her eyes slowly fluttered shut as the river slowly tugged her away.

She was found two days later by the village search parties, and her return was met with sobbing and a heartbroken butcher boy.

For years things continued in this trend with families having multiple children because many seemed to perish at a young age due to a lack of self-preservation and unfortunate accidents; leaving few children to make it to adulthood. And of those that did live past childhood, many felt as though something pure and innocent had been forgotten, causing much of humanity to take great lengths in finding those missing feelings, causing wars and explorations of the world, making civilizations rise and fall. All in search of their desires to regain the hopes, dreams, and memories of the past.

AN: I'm so sorry for this massive delay, I wanted to finish all of the chapters and then give it to you as a surprise, but I got into the holiday spirit and couldn't hold back anymore, this has been waiting for a couple months now. I can't give you a consistent schedule but I hope you've enjoyed it, if not, just yell at me. Hope everyone had a Happy New Year, 2018!