A/N: To those lost a week ago at the Sandy Hook shooting, rest in peace. The nations greives for you, and will honor your memories. To the families of lost ones, I offer these words of consolation: it is only a temporary goodbye; we will see loved ones again on the other side. I leave you with these wise words from the wizard Gandalf: "I will not say 'Do not weep,' for not all tears are an evil."

On a slightly happier note, I am now on Christmas break, but I don't know how soon I will be able to update. My grandfather, who lives in Alabama, is dying, so my family and I might try to squeeze in one last visit before the end, and if we do, I won't have internet access. Rest assured, I will update as soon as I possibly can.

By the way, to everyone who's added me or my story to their favorites or follows list, I appreciate it, I really do. However, I would love it even more if you would leave me a review and tell me why you liked my story. I'm always seeking to improve myself as a writer, and reviews help me do that; I know what the readers loved, and I know to stop doing something that the readers don't exactly like. So, please leave some reviews. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians or any piece of music that Melody plays or sings.

Chapter 2: First Encounters

Shadows twisted their way through the night, taking on the forms of black horses with glowing yellow eyes. These creatures found the young spirit, who was currently weeping as she slept, and swarmed around her. Her trauma and weakness was a feast for them! She began to thrash and cry out as images flashed on her closed eyelids. She saw the men again, but instead of herself being the victim, Laurel was the one they were violating. Melody's dream self shrieked and tried to reach her sister, but the closer she got to Laurel and her tormenters, the farther away they got.

Finally, after a great level of effort, the real Melody managed to rip her eyes open. Panting, she sat up abruptly, looked around wildly, rubbed her arms, and drew her knees to her chest; the standard post-nightmare motions. More sobs ran through her body and she looked out over the town. "Laurel," she whispered, "wherever you are, I hope you're safe."

The horses had fled when the immortal woke up; but what Melody didn't know at first, was that they were merely a preview. When they left, they went to go summon their master. And he came, rising up out of the shadows, riding on the back of one of the Nightmares. He glanced around, and his eyes glinted maliciously when they fell on the shaking girl.

"What a poor, precious little girl!" Pitch Black purred. "Such trauma, such fear. It's marvelous!" He slid off the back of the Nightmare, landed on the rooftop, and walked until he was positioned just behind the new immortal. "I really must thank you," he said. "With the fear you give off, you've given both me and my Nightmares strength enough to reform and challenge the Guardians."

"Oh, buzz off, would you?" Melody demanded without even looking up. "Creeper," she muttered.

Her sudden outburst, if it could be called that, startled Pitch into stumbling back. "You can hear me?" he asked.

"Duh," Melody groaned as she turned around, and Pitch was momentarily shocked by the amount of anguish in her eyes. "You're the only one up here who's talking about fear, nightmares, and challenging the Guardians. In fact, you're the only one up here right now besides me. For your information, I would like to be alone, so please leave." She turned back and buried her head in her knees, but Pitch stayed.

He knew that he had never seen her before, knew that she had only very recently entered the world of immortals. And he also knew that her agony would give him even more power than he had ever had before. "Miss," he began, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Melody swatted him away. "Don't touch me!" she hissed. Pitch opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "I don't want to have to ask you again; leave me alone!"

The Bogeyman paused, unsure of exactly how to react. Clearly, he could not influence her directly, but he would merely bide his time, and soon, she would come crawling to him for help. "Very well, my dear. I'm sure I'll see you soon, I'm sure, but allow me to give you a little reminder of our meeting."

"I'm not scared of you, whoever you are," the music spirit whispered as she dried her tears, stood up, and faced Pitch.

"But you are afraid of something. And before you ask, I always know what anyone is afraid of." The malevolent being sprang forward and grabbed Melody's hand. The young immortal screamed as dark energy flowed through her, aggravating injuries that had been inflicted in a previous life. The Bogeyman looked down at his handiwork and grinned. "You're afraid that that will happen to you again." He let her go and gave her a mocking bow. "Until we meet again, madam."

Melody had fallen back when the dark spirit released her hand. Her whole body ached from whatever had just been done to her. She reached back and pulled her violin and bow in front of her, checking them over for any sort of damage. A relieved smile crossed the spirit's face when she saw that neither had been harmed. Pain shot through her arms as she stood up and returned her violin to its proper resting spot, and she groaned. It wouldn't hurt to see the extent of her injuries, she figured, so she pulled back her sleeve.

Dark bruises decorated her arms. Melody felt fresh tears come to her eyes when she saw that the bruises were in the shape of handprints, and she knew that more of these bruises covered her body. Instinct told her that these bruises were the physical remnants of the events leading up to her transformation into the spirit of music. She curled even further in on herself and once again wept.

The Guardian of Fun rode the wind, and by now, he was getting a little frustrated. He was currently in Williamsburg Virginia, and he had been searching what felt like nearly all of North America, where the spirit had last been seen, and he still had no idea where she might be. He was just about ready to give up on North America and move on to South America, when a sobbing sound reached his ears and he turned.

Jack let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the crying sound came from the very spirit he was looking for. However, he had not been expecting her to look like this. At first glance, she seemed to be the very embodiment of suffering, not a Guardian of Childhood. However, there was no mistaking that this was the spirit that the Man in the Moon had chosen as the newest Guardian. The winter spirit took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," he thought.

He landed on the roof and walked up to the weeping immortal. "Excuse me-" he began.

"How many times am I going to have to say this tonight? Leave me alone!" the girl shouted, not even bothering to raise her head and look at him.

Jack patiently took a deep breath, even though he knew that now it was going to be even harder to get her to talk to him. "Melody, I know that this is going to be a hard thing for you to do right now, but my friends and I need to talk to you."

"Well, then, why don't you bring them here to talk?" Melody retorted, still keeping her head down. "What makes you think I'll go anywhere with you, and on top of everything, how do you know my name?!"

This was not turning out well, Jack realized. "Time for 'Plan B'," he thought. Momentarily turning his back to the young music spirit, he created a snowball and infused it with his magic. With a deceptively soft smile, he turned back to Melody and held the snowball out to her. "Hey," he whispered gently, "you want to have some fun?"

Her reaction was the last thing that Jack had been expecting. She snarled and sprang up with a speed and agility that Jack though only he and maybe a few other spirits possessed. Now, instead of looking at a weary, anguished, young immortal, Jack now found himself facing a very powerful, very intimidating, and very, very ticked off music spirit.

Melody drew her bow across the strings of her violin, causing a very dissonant chord to sound. Tangible strains of music flew through the air and struck Jack in the forehead. The winter spirit stumbled back, gripping his staff for support. The force of the attack had caused him to drop the snowball, and he used his now-free hand to clutch at his head where the attack had struck. "Ow!" he exclaimed. "What's wrong with-? All I asked was if you wanted to have some fun!"

"And that's what the men said to me shortly before this happened!" the music spirit shouted back, gesturing to herself when she said "this."

Jack's eyes widened with realization. "You mean you remem-"

"Go AWAY!" Melody shrieked, striking another chord.

The Guardian of Fun managed to dodge this attack, but now he was more than eager to get out of there as fast as possible. Once again calling upon the wind, Jack flew back to North's workshop as fast as he could with his head injury.

The other four were surprised to see him return alone, holding a frosted hand to his head. Sandy formed a question mark above his head, asking what happened.

"I am NOT going near her again for a LONG time." Jack firmly declared. "She's volatile – extremely so. All I asked was if she wanted to have some fun and she attacked me." He moved his frosted hand away and showed them the red mark on his head for emphasis, causing the other Guardians to cringe in sympathy. "However, I did discover something interesting: She remembers things from her previous life."

The Guardians all gasped, and the other boys immediately began to talk about the ramifications and possiblilites of a new immortal having all the memories from their past life. Tooth, however, flew over to Jack and started to help him nurse the wound. "Tooth, I'm fine." Jack insisted. "I was only caught off-guard; this'll fade in a little while."

Sandy suddenly separated from the group and glided out the door. "Where's Sandy going?" Tooth asked.

"He's going to see if he can convince the music spirit to trust us." Bunny explained.

"Good luck." Jack muttered. "He's going to need it."

A/N: I usually do that chord sound when someone makes me really angry when I'm practicing. It really helps with misplaced aggression. Anyway, thank you, my readers for being patient with me until I uploaded this chapter.