*Please note that I haven't read the Guardians of Childhood books. All I am working from is my imagination and the Rise of the Guardians wiki. But mainly, I'm using my imagination to make any background information about each character.

*Also, just a grammar change for all of you wonderful readers to know. I'm adding these - ' ' - to any of Tooth's fairies' words so you know the difference between Tooth's thoughts and a fairy's words. Also, it just helps my Word document to relax about my "poor utilisation" of grammar.

*Thanks to FreeFallingOnAMusicNumber for discussing the rest of this story with me. I know you don't remember most of what we ended up talking about (it was like, eleven at night when started talking about this right?), but you did assist me in some basic overall story development! Also, you are a great help in identifying grammar mistakes!

TOOTH

It's Pitch's tooth.

For a long, long while I just stared at the molar in my hand. I didn't know if I wanted to be afraid or curious that I was holding what ultimately remained of the Bogeyman's childhood memories. I continued to eye the tooth in my hand as my shock proceeded to consume me.

It couldn't be. Really. It couldn't be his tooth.

"But … how?" I asked quietly. "How did you get this molar, Baby Tooth?" I could feel my voice rising with my astonishment. It had to be impossible …

For a while, Baby Tooth was quiet. She twisted her tiny hands into knots before answering slowly.

'Remember when you punched Pitch after giving him a quarter?' she inquired hesitantly. 'I didn't realise it at the time, but a tooth came out. I remembered today seeing it falling out of his jaw and had a look. It was still there on the lake. I just thought …' Baby Tooth paused. I could feel her nervousness spiking just slightly. Her purple and blue eyes flitted nervously away from mine. 'It was a tooth, after all,' she finished, 'we can't leave a tooth behind, isn't that right, Tooth?'

Finally understanding, I nodded slowly in agreement. A brief smile surfaced to my face as I remembered the scene. I had put my all into that little punch - it served Pitch right anyway. He stole my fairies … and the teeth … and those memories ... A slight frown slid onto my face as a small wave of anger washed over me.

I had felt so helpless, so distressed, when he kidnapped my fairies! Why … I clenched my hand tightly but then an abrupt prickling sensation sprouted from my palm, staggering my fury. I opened my hand, remembering the tooth and inspected the molar almost irritably.

The tooth was so grey … but so small. I could feel my rage gradually subside as my eyes slowly traced over the molar again and again. Somehow, despite it having a dull colouring and an uneven edge, it looked so delicate. It was fragile - just like any other child's tooth. Just like any other …

I closed my fingers over the tooth and looked up at Baby Tooth.

… It was a tooth, after all …

"You did the right thing," I comforted her, my fury resolved. "It's our job to protect the memories of its bearers, whether they're good or bad."

And enemy spirits are not an exception, I thought. A childhood memory is a memory.

I placed my free hand over my closed one, as if on instinct to protect the precious tooth, and released a slow breath. It was time to do my job.

'What are we going to do with Pitch's tooth?' inquired Baby Tooth.

"We'll treat it like any other tooth," I informed her. "We'll have to store it."

With that said, I immediately flew to the Main Tower, with Baby Tooth right at my shoulder. I didn't know how I felt at the moment. I still wasn't certain whether I was frightened, nervous or even excited about what I was going to do.

The Main Tower wasn't too far off from where I was, making it a quick flight. It was the smallest building of my palace and was located right in the centre. It held no storage units, so it had never grown since the palace had been built. However, despite its dwarfish size, it was the most vital building of all.

The Main Tower was almost like a rendezvous for every one of us fairies. It was the building that provided coins for us to deliver and where I mostly gave out my orders to collect teeth. It was also the tower where I made new containers.

With well practiced ease, I flew into the Main Tower and hovered over to the Container Wall. It was located on the inside of the Main Tower and it only consisted of a board and a receiving slot. Despite its simplistic demeanour, it really was fairly complicated.

The board was a large keyboard full of various switches, dials and buttons. It was around a meter square in size and had been mounted onto the Main Tower's wall. It wasn't too big or too small for me to work with, but it had been darn hard to figure out when I had first started collecting teeth. A smile surfaced onto my face as I remembered those early years. The first few containers I made where all trial and error - mostly error, actually - and it took me a few months to understand how the board worked.

Thank goodness I now knew how to use it.

Bringing myself back to the present, I expertly reached out my hand to pull the first switch: the signaller to let the board know I'm making a new container. A familiar brrrnnggg! happily reached my ears as the wall awakened to do its duty. A roll of excitement rippled through me, loosening some of my tension with the arrival of a familiar task. Making containers was one of the best things about being the Tooth Fairy!

"When was the last time I made a new container?" I asked Baby Tooth nonchalantly, as I moved my hand forward to begin the custom-designing process. All of the containers were identical save for the picture at its front, so there was no need for me to press any instructions to create the container - the board did that of its own accord.

I always loved the fact that no child's face ever looked the same, even if they were identical siblings. As I made a container, I could always see the child's face, so I knew - without a doubt - what they looked like. I don't really know how I have these kinds of visions: I've questioned it in the past, but I've never found an answer. Only MiM knows.

Wait a minute.

I quickly withdrew my outstretched hand as I realised the first hiccup in our mission. This time, I wasn't going to receive any visions for this container: this tooth was for a spirit, not a human child.

So what picture should I put on it?

I frowned a little at the question, a hint of panic sparking within me. Pitch was much older than me by hundreds of years. He had existed before the Dark Ages and that meant before I was even born. I wouldn't have known what he looked like as a child. I've only ever seen him as the fearful spirit I knew today.

A twinge of sadness and guilt sparked quietly within me as I realised that I barely knew anything else about the infamous Bogeyman. All I knew was that he was the spirit of fear and that his powers could easily slip out of control, causing nightmares and intense cases of fright. He lived in the shadows and travelled quickly by them.

I didn't know what he looked like as a human, or how he became the very personification of fear. Did he have a human name before all of this? How about a family? I wasn't even sure what continent he lived on during his human life.

As the questions rolled in, one by one, one thought struck me the hardest as it came to my mind: did he remember his human life?

As I digested that question, I felt a sort of guilty grievance rise from within me. Any occasion where I had met Pitch was when I was fighting him or arguing with him. I've never had the chance or even given the thought to understand him.

Was he like Jack all over again? Lost soul in the sea of time, with no one to talk to or even see him?

'Tooth, what's wrong?'

Abruptly, I was snapped out of my thoughts. I turned to face Baby Tooth. She looked worried.

'Tooth?'

Get back to reality Tooth. Just take it one step at a time. I blinked twice to make sure my mind was settled before averting Baby Tooth's question and asking her instead: "What picture should I put on this container?"

Baby Tooth was immediately stumped by the question, just like I was.

'I have no idea. We don't know what Pitch looked like as a child. Do we even need to have a picture of him as a child?'

"Good point: he's an adult," I concurred. I could feel my usual self beginning to resurface again. "You know what? I'll just put a picture of the Pitch we know today. That'll be alright, wouldn't it?"

Baby Tooth nodded quickly. 'That will do.'

Almost automatically, I resumed my task at the board and began pulling and pushing the gadgets I knew I needed. I immersed myself in the task, making sure I gave a cautious thought about anything before performing another step.

But in all honesty, I didn't want to think about those questions at that moment. Now wasn't the time.

As I methodically went through my task, my mind was filled with the buzz, hums and clicks of the board. It drowned out anything else my mind was capable of receiving: my fairies' chatter, the soft whispers of the mountain breeze, my own thoughts …

Clunk.

I blinked twice, realising that my hand was resting on a pushed button. It was the last step in creating a new container. I had finished it. That was it … What have I done?

Congratulations Tooth, you have just made a teeth container for the Bogeyman. The thought whirled around incomprehensively in my mind. Time seemed to still as I turned my eyes to the receiving slot. I was oblivious to any sound that surrounded me at that moment. All I could hear was my own hesitant thoughts, making a ruckus in my mind.

There it was: a teeth container for Pitch.

Shouldn't I be frightened? Or even the least bit nervous? I wasn't even sure.

Slowly, I forced my hand to grasp the container's end and gently pulled it out from the slot. I gingerly turned the container over in my free hand - I was still holding the molar in the other after all this time. The container felt just like any other, but the thought of its owner seemed to make it darker and heavier to my senses. Wordlessly, I rotated the container to see the picture I had imprinted on its front.

Well, it really did look like Pitch: it even had the same scowl.

A soft laugh threatened to escape from me, but somehow, I couldn't let it go. Instead, I quickly swiped my index finger over the top of the container. With a dazzling smooth display the container's top disappeared and revealed its cushioned interior. Gently, I rolled the molar forward in my hand so that it was wedged between my index finger and thumb and placed it into its rightful place.

I allowed myself a brief moment to have a look at the little tooth, like I did with every new tooth set I made. It was always such a small start for every new set. Just one tooth to begin with, but more teeth always soon followed over the years.

However, this set won't ever be completed. It will just be this little tooth and that will be all; just one precious little memory that happened to survive the storm of time.

I let out a sigh and closed the container shut. My eyes watched the ripple of gold diamonds as they hastily covered the opening once again. I clasped the gold box with both my hands and held it close to me.

Now I needed to store it.

But where?

I turned to Baby Tooth for some advice. "Where should I store this?" I asked her. This situation almost threw me off my track - I've always known where to store a container, but this one, obviously, was kind of different …

Baby Tooth shrugged her shoulders. 'I have no idea Tooth! But you should store it soon. The others will be arriving soon.'

I nodded in agreement - I could hear their thoughts. They signalled that they'll be reporting back in about five minute tops. And that wouldn't be long. Even though my fairies were still a part of me, I wanted to keep Pitch's tooth as low profile as possible. Somehow, this situation felt as if only Baby Tooth and I were only meant to know about it. And judging by what Baby Tooth just mentioned, I knew she thought the same too.

"Okay," I started, holding the container tighter in my hands. "We can guess this container can go into the Europe tower because that's practically where Pitch began, isn't that right? But then again, he could travel all over world through the shadows, so that means he can't really have a general home location like we do. He's like Sandy, he just travels everywhere." My eyes widened as I realised that I couldn't really sort this container like the others either. I voiced my thoughts: "We can't store this like the others."

Baby Tooth gave me a thoughtful look; she came to the same conclusion too. 'It's a spirit's. We can't sort his like Jack's and North's because we collected his tooth when he is a spirit… We need a category that is exempt from all the sorting.'

"But we don't have o-" I stopped myself mid-sentence as a solution came to my mind. My teeth were exempt! "My teeth Baby Tooth!"

Hastily, I shot up from the container area to the top floor of the Main Tower. It was a private room of mine that the fairies rarely disturbed me in. It was a small circular section right at the top of the Main Tower and provided a complete view of the castle in the north, east and west directions. There was a tiny, closed storage wall in the south end of the room: it was where I stored my own teeth.

I wasted no time to get to my room - I didn't even think to check if Baby Tooth was following me. I hurriedly flew to the south wall and flung opened the double doors of my personal storage cupboard. But suddenly I froze on the spot as I woke up from my sudden mad rush.

I only kept my most treasured personal items in this cupboard. Beside my teeth, the only other item here was a small gold trinket my first believer gave to me before he passed away.

Should I really store Pitch's teeth here?

Now I was thinking I was crazy to even think of this.

But then I didn't have any better ideas.

That was good enough.

Without a second thought, I deposited the container onto the bottom shelf and slammed the storage doors shut.

"Ahhh … ha, ha, ha." A distressed - but somehow relieved - laugh bubbled up from within me. I was so confused. What on earth was I doing? MiM help me.

'Tooth! The others are here! What are your orders?'

I snapped myself from my reverie as my mind recognised the distinct sound of my fairies' chatter. Time to get back to work. Nothing happened. Nothing happened.

"Three in San Francisco, four in Madrid and one in Darwin!" I called out the orders as soon as they came to my mind. And with that, my fairies were occupied once again.

The silence enveloped the palace - Baby Tooth and I were the only ones there at that moment -, but it was a comfortable one that had no need to be broken. But in the quietness, my mind was transforming into another panicked storm.

Should I tell the Guardians about Pitch's Tooth?

Thanks for reading!

Thanks so much for the reviews! They really helped to motivate me to keep this fanfiction going! And a big THANKS to those Deviants from Deviant Art who actually looked up this fanfiction! I really appreciate it (even if you didn't review) and you know who you are.

Thanks for reviewing: Cyber-Akistu, Fey Beauty, Leigh Tate, Guest, Dice, Evelyn Carol, Anon, The Bloodless, Little-Angel-22, Zippo, FreeFallingOnAMusicNumber, Serori, bedstories, Vija-Thorn and meep.