A/N: I am beyond hope with my obsession with Rise of the Guardians. Just today, I went to go see it YET AGAIN! This makes it a whopping six times that I have seen that movie in theaters! At the end of this chapter, Melody just breaks down, so just a warning. Oh, by the way, if Bunny's lines seem off, I cannot write an Aussie accent to save my life. Sorry about that.
Chapter 5: "I Can't Do This."
The yetis and elves had already prepared the sleigh for departure by the time the six arrived. North had, at some point, donned his traditional furs, and was currently yelling out final orders to the yetis. But Melody barely paid any attention to these things. Her mind was completely focused on the famous sleigh. She had been expecting the sleigh to look how it was depicted in pictures in child's storybooks. So to find out that is was some sort of epic cross between a snowmobile and WWII fighter plane rendered her quite speechless and immobile.
North chuckled at the look on Melody's face. "Everyone loves the sleigh." He declared.
Jack, Tooth, and Sandy eagerly climbed in, and North took the reins. Bunny and Melody, however, remained behind. "What are you two waiting for?" North asked, his voice a mixture of laughter and impatience.
"Hey, remember, I'm new to this world!" Melody playfully scolded as she climbed in. She looked back and noticed that Bunny had not moved. "Bunny, come on!"
"Uh, I still think my tunnels are safeh." Bunny said, thumping his foot on the side of the sleigh. This caused the sleigh to rock back and forth slightly. Melody, caught by surprise and the apparent instability, gasped and grasped the edge she was closest to, and her face had taken on a green tinge, as if she was suddenly seasick.
Bunny took that as an encouragement to his case and turned away, preparing to create another of his tunnels. However, North wasn't having any of that.
"Ach! Get in!"
The Russian grabbed the Aussie Pooka by the scruff of the neck, lifted him clear off the ground, and practically threw him into the sleigh.
"Buckle up!"
Melody actually did look around before looking up in horror. "That was just an expression, wasn't it?"
"Correct!" North yelled. "Let's go!" And he snapped the reins and the sleigh shot forward.
Bunny wasn't the only one who started freaking out. Melody remembered that, when she was still mortal, she had never really been that much of a roller coaster lover, and North was driving the sleigh a little too fast for her liking. But it was when North started doing the loop-the-loops that caused her to absolutely despise travelling in the sleigh.
When they were finally flying through the air, Melody began to take some deep breaths to calm her nerves. "Melody, are you okay?" Tooth asked.
"Next time, I'm going with Bunny in the tunnels!" Melody declared vehemently. "If I wasn't already dead, that would have scared me to death!"
"Ha! North ya hear tha'!" Bunny hollered. "I ain't the only one who thinks this thing is a death sentence!"
North didn't even bother to grace that comment with a response. Instead, he drew a snow globe from deep within his robes, whispered something into it and tossed it ahead of the sleigh. A portal split the air and both Melody and Bunny shrieked when the sleigh was sucked in.
"I hate this thing!" Melody shouted, but then she gasped when she realized exactly where they were, even though it was the middle of the night. "This is Williamsburg! We're not that far from my home!"
Tooth, Jack, and Sandy instantly took to the air and split up in different directions, each combing the surrounding areas for any sign of any agents. Soon, one of Tooth's mini-fairies approached the sleigh, urgently squeaking and pointing in the direction Tooth had flown off in.
North jerked the sleigh around so violently and drove the reindeer so quickly that the other two nearly fell off. "Careful!" Bunny yelled, but everyone was ready to defeat at least some agents of Pitch Black.
North (driving the sleigh), Jack, and Sandy all met up with Tooth at the same time. She was near downtown Williamsburg, trailing the agents from the air the same way the nightmare sand followed their shadows. One of the men was significantly taller than the other, and something about this fact struck a warning chord in Melody's mind.
The two agents stopped. "We know you're there." The taller one said without even turning around. "Guardians." This word the man hissed, as though the very word was absolute poison.
North immediately landed the sleigh and both he and Bunny jumped so that they joined Jack, Sandy and Tooth in facing the agents. Bunny drew forth his boomerangs, North drew his swords, Sandy allowed his dreamsand whips to grow to their full length, and Jack's staff glowed threateningly. Melody took a deep breath and disembarked from the sleigh and began to bring her violin onto her shoulder.
The two agents then turned around to face her and Melody staggered back when she recognized both of these men, as well as the voice of the echo. These two men were the ones responsible for her transformation into the spirit of music. The voice of the echo was the voice of the first spirit she had encountered.
"I knew we'd meet again." The shorter one said. "I just didn't expect it to be this soon." The two grinned and began to advance on her.
"S-stay away from me!" Melody attempted to sound brave and threatening, but the trembling of her voice gave away her fear.
Both men grinned, and then they began to change. They grew in height until they were only a little bit shorter that Bunny. Their hair became dark and they became echoing images of the Bogeyman. "Pitch!" Jack yelled, but both copies ignored him, and continued to advance on Melody.
"I must say, it's good to see you again, my dear." The copy on the left, the one that had been the taller man, said. "I didn't really expect to see you again this soon, but no matter. I am surprised that you trusted this group of wierdos so quickly."
"I trust them a lot more than I'll ever trust you!" Melody was able to hiss.
"But have they accepted you?" the copy on the right, the shorter of the men, purred maliciously. "You know that all of them now are believed in, while you aren't, not even by your own sister." Melody's face took on a look of pure anguish as the copies rubbed salt into a still-bleeding wound. Sandy and North both started to attack, but the Pitch copies erected an impenetrable wall of black sand behind them, cutting them and Melody off from the other Guardians. "And I'd be more than willing to bet that you haven't told them about what happened to you on the night you became Melody. Do you possibly think that they'll accept you once they learn about that?"
Both of them grinned, leaned in so close that Melody was forced to close her eyes so that she wouldn't see them, and then both copies said, "You're no Guardian. You're just an anguished spirit, one whose pain gives me all the power I need."
Melody sobbed and ran off, unable to take any more verbal abuse.
The copies turned back into the men and turned back to the Guardians, all five of whom bore looks of pure fury on their faces. Sandy was attacking the wall with all his might, but even the combined strength of all five could not break the wall. The men smirked and melted into the shadows. When they were long gone, the wall disappeared, and the Guardians were left with nothing else to do but try to find the runaway music spirit.
Melody ran through the familiar streets of Williamsburg, and this was perhaps the only time that she was grateful for her disbelieved-in state, for in her despair, she didn't bother to look up until she had reached her former house, and she was certain that she ran through several people in the process.
She knew that there had always been a key under the mat, but surely Officer Stone would have taken it, wouldn't he have? Unless Laurel had kept it a secret from him and the rest of the police force, wanting to visit her old home in secret?
Fully expecting failure, Melody looked under the mat and nearly shouted for joy when she saw the familiar key. However, the salt that had been rubbed into her wounds still stung beyond imagination, and it soon felt as though her soul was deprived of any joy. She took the key and gently let herself in the house.
The spirit ran to her former room and let loose all the agony and torment contained within her soul at that moment. The sounds pierced all who heard, and for years, the house was avoided, because people believed that the house was haunted by a tormented, and most likely vengeful, spirit.
A gentle knock at her window roused the girl from her tears, and when she looked up, she saw the Sandman floating there, clearly wanting to help her, and to get an explanation from her.
Melody stood and opened the window, allowing the Guardian of Dreams to enter. "I'm sorry I ran off like that, Sandy, but it's just… I can't do this. He was right, I'm no Guardian." Sandy shook his head violently at that statement, the look in his eyes doing all the talking: he though – no, believed with all his heart – that she was a Guardian.
Melody turned away. "I guess I should be getting back to the others, then, huh?" She started out of the door, but she was stopped by a golden whip wrapping itself around her waist. Sandy turned her around to face him and the whip tightened ever so slightly, but it was still gentle.
A grim, humorless smile came to Melody's face. "I'm not leaving until I tell you the truth, am I?" she asked. When Sandy shook his head "no," Melody seemed to collapse to where she was sitting on the floor. She took a deep, stuttering breath, and began.
She told of how the men had intended to rape Laurel first, how she had helped Laurel escape, insisting that the Guardians protect Laurel no matter what happened to Aria, and finally, she told of how the men had pulled a stun gun on her, secured her to her own bed, violated her, and finally shot her.
Melody put her right arm forward and drew back the sleeve, revealing her bruises in all their grotesque glory. She also brought her left hand up to her temple and drew back her thick blond locks, revealing the scar tissue of where the taller man's bullet had ripped its way through her skull.
"Pitch was the first spirit I encountered." Melody confessed. "I didn't have these bruises at first, only the scar on my head. But he said something about my trauma and fear giving him enough power to challenge the Guardians. And then he drew forth these bruises to remind me both of the events leading up to my transformation and our first meeting." She bowed her head, failing to notice the whip being withdrawn.
"I'm no Guardian." She repeated. At this statement, her chin was almost violently yanked up by Sandy and she saw him violently shaking his head, adamantly disagreeing with her. "Sandy, you saw me back there. I froze up." She began to shake, tears once again spilling from her eyes. "I can't do this."
This episode was much worse; it was a full-out mental breakdown. Sandy did nothing more than hold the new immortal until her shakes had finally subsided and her tears stopped. It took the good portion of the night, but Sandy was just as able to send dreams to the children of the world from where he stood as he was on his regular dreamsand cloud.
Finally, Melody was able to stand up under her own power, without Sandy having to help her with a stream of dreamsand. She smiled at the oldest Guardian. "Thanks, Sandy. You're a good friend." Sandy smiled and gave a simple shrug, as if to say, "I do what I can."
Melody sighed. "I guess we'd better be getting back to the others now, huh? Are you going to let me go this time?"
Sandy laughed silently for a moment before motioning to the door. "Ladies first."
Melody's smile grew slightly brighter than it had ever been before. When they were out in the open air, Sandy formed his dreamsand cloud underneath both of them, and they flew in absolute silence for a while, but Sandman soon pointed to Melody's arm.
"What?" she asked, confused.
Sandy again pointed to her arm before pointing to her head. Melody's confused look didn't fade, so he formed a picture of her pulling back her sleeve in front of the other four.
"I need to tell them when we meet back up with them, don't I?" When Sandy nodded, Melody looked forward. "I guess you're not really giving me a choice in the matter. All right, I'll tell them, but you need to be by my side when I do, otherwise, I don't know if I'm going to be strong enough."
Sandy nodded again, Melody smiled again, and again, it was a brighter smile than before. Perhaps, now that one of the Guardians knew, her soul was beginning to calm.
A/N: I have a feeling that I am one of the few authors who makes my OC hate the sleigh. Well, I'm not very good on upside-down roller coasters. Wooden ones, I'm fine on, even ones that have big drops, but when they start going upside-down, I start having problems. I hope you liked this chapter, and I will see you guys as soon as I have chapter 6 written. Oh, and that big space for reviews isn't going to fill itself!