Chapter 7

Eren stared at the guardians who were standing by the fireplace. He examined them one by one; one was an old man with a long white beard, the annoying rabbit guardian and white haired boy, a green-colored hummingbird-like fairy, the golden little guardian that waved him around like a ragdoll and…a girl whose expression screamed curiosity.

Who the hell are these people? The guardian thought as his eyes scanned the area. The ceiling was painted with smiling children, a table to the side was messy with scattered papers, and underneath the said table were elves.

His gaze landed back at the group In front of him.

Silence stretched between them as the atmosphere felt thick and heavy. The silence would have gone forever if North hadn't cleared his throat.

"Hello there…Eren Jaeger. Welcome to the North Pole! We have heard much about you!" Eren's face was locked in a firm expression. "Including the—uh—incidents that happened in London. But let's forget about that for now." North continued, to which the boy raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"But we are very—"

"Just cut to the chase." Eren's cold voice sliced through North's unwanted monologue as if it was a piece of cake.

Everyone, intimidated by the harshness of his words, looked up at each other nervously. Except Jack, who hovered above the boy.

"Don't be afraid of us. We're not bad guys, okay."

Jack's gentle words were rewarded with a piercing glare.

"Afraid? What made you think that I would be afraid of you?"

"You're acting like it."

This caused Eren's anger to boil and before he can retort, North cut in their conversation.

"Eren, can we call you Eren? Or would you rather another nickname? Perhaps Jae? Or Er? How about Ren?"

Eren glared at him, but swallowed down the retort threatening to spill out of his lips. He was exhausted, and succumbing to his anger at this group's idiocy will only drain him even more. He exhaled and closed his eyes, trying to let the anger dissipate.

"Eren Jaeger is fine." He told them in a monotonous voice. "Although that's not my real name."

Undeterred by the boy's obvious lack of interest, North kept on talking animatedly, even pulling Jack and Bunny into the heated discussion of choosing a nickname for the boy. Sandman shook his head at the other guardians' antics and calmly sipped his eggnog when he noticed something different about the moon from the corner of his eye. Curious, he faced the huge gap on the roof of North's workshop, eyes widening at what he saw.

Eggnog forgotten, he headed for Tooth and tried to get her attention. Unfortunately, she was much too busy discussing Anya's teeth with her mini-fairies. Bunny, North and Jack were too immersed in their conversation to pay him any attention. Then he noticed Anya who was off to the side, curious eyes locked on the boy tied to the chair.

He tugged on her clothes and she looked down at him. "What is it, Sir Sandy?"

Sandman conjured up an arrow that pointed at the moon. Anya followed it with her gaze, her own eyes widening at the moon, bewildered.

"Do you…um…want me to call everyone?" She asked uncertainly, tearing her eyes away from the moon.

Sandy nodded, and Anya cautiously approached the other guardians who were still in the middle of a conversation.

"How about Eri?"

"Nah, mate. That's a girl's name. I'd rather use Lil' Eren and Big Eren for his other form."

"That sounds plain. Hey, what if we call him Goliath?"

A vein popped on Eren's forehead.

"I can hear all of you, you know." He ground out angrily, but he was ignored.

He seethed in anger, but it was gone as soon as he realized that this was his chance to escape, that the guardians were too idiotically absorbed in their antics that no one would pay him any attention.

Go on, continue arguing. Eren smirked as he focused on getting the ribbon untied. He tried to minimize his movements as much as possible, not daring to alert the other guardians of his plan. He almost had the ribbon undone when he noticed the girl approaching them from his peripheral vision.

"Uh, Sir North?" The conversation abruptly stopped and Eren glared at the oblivious brunette as she continued to talk to the other guardians. "The moon…" She trailed, not knowing how to describe the phenomenon and merely pointed.

North was startled at the bright light being emitted by the moon that it shone onto the floor where the insignia of the Big Four was carved.

"North…is that what I—"

"Yes, Bunny." North breathed in, his nostrils flaring in excitement and approached the ray of moonlight. Everyone's eyes closed in on the insignia as it opened where a contraption slowly emerged and righted itself in front of them.

Eren, curious, looked over his shoulder as he was faced the other way. Unfortunately, the effort was still not enough as he still couldn't see what was happening.

"Oi! What the hell is happening?" He shouted to the winter sprite, who merely grabbed the back of Eren's chair and turned him around with ease.

"It's the moon, " Jack's voice was filled with awe, his eyes still on the contraption at the center of the room, "He's choosing a new guardian."

Eren raised a disbelieving eyebrow. What the white-haired guardian was incredulous in his opinion. He looked again at the strange contraption, there was a huge crystal at its tip which absorbed the moon's rays.

Eren could feel the other guardians excitement sizzling in the air, all eyes were wide and anticipating as they watched the crystal, an image beginning to form at its core. It was the image of the new guardian. The first to be seen was a pair of feet, slowly but surely building up to the legs, then to the torso.

Anya had no idea what was happening, but still managed to smile at the giddy expressions of the guardians beside her. Her eyes trailed back to Eren who returned her gaze with a scowl.

Stop looking at me, damn it! He continued at his attempt to break free, hoping that whatever was happening will keep everyone's attention long enough for him to finally escape.

"I wonder who it's going to be."

"Leprechaun?" Tooth suggested happily.

Sandman drew a sand image of an egg, suggesting Mother goose.

"Might be my friend, the Lorax." North offered.

"Please not Groundhog, please not Groundhog." Bunny prayed fervently.

The arms started to take shape, and then the chest, the shoulders, the neck, and finally the face. To say that everyone was shocked at the image of the new guardian would be an understatement.

"WHAT?!" It was Bunny who was first to react, followed by an excited Jack.

"I knew it! He's going to be one of us!"

"Hm, should we ask for his name again?" North wondered.

"As long as he will help the children." Tooth commented, not having any qualms about the new chosen guardian.

On the contraption was an exact representation of the boy that was bound to the chair. It was Eren.

"What's the meaning of this" He demanded, shocked and confused at why he was being projected on the weird object.

"Congratulations!" North's loud voice bounced off of the walls, making it seem louder than it should be. "You have been chosen! You are one of us!"

All of a sudden, trumpet sounds filled the room as yetis with torches and elves with instruments marched in the room. Eren, still having no idea what the commotion was all about, became even more confused when the yetis lifted his chair and brought him forward, in front of North.

"C'mon, Eren, you should be excited! You're now a guardian!" Jack explained, ignorant of the other boy's displeasure. All of them were.

Me…a guardian? He saw North open up a large book as incessant chatter filled his ears. They were celebrating. Why? What's the occasion? Because he was chosen as a guardian? He was chosen by the damned moon that did nothing but mock and look down at him?

To hell with this.

Eren unleashed all the rage that he was keeping under wraps earlier, forcefully braking free of the ribbon and standing up with an angry stomp of his foot on the floor. The force of his action caused a harsh wind to blow in all directions causing papers to fly around and elves fall and slide away from him.

The celebration and festivities were stopped abruptly as they stared at the boy who leered at everyone in the room.

"What the hell? Me? A guardian?" Eren laughed menacingly. "BULLSHIT!"

Eren's voice rose, every word that slipped from his lips hard, cold and arrogant.

"I am free! I am powerful! I am stronger than all of you!" His hands fisted at his side. "I am in no one's team, especially not a team with ridiculous members like you!"

Jack approached the boy. "But then you'd be alone."

Eren's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before catching himself, fixing his eyes back into a hard glare.

"So?"

"You'd be lonely."

"I don't give a shit."

The winter sprite's eyes were filled with pity as he looked at Eren.

"You're weak."

Eren's anger started to boil once more with Jack's words.

"You'll regret saying that."

"It's only the truth."

"Hah! What do you even know about me? You know what, I'll just let my blades do the—" His hands met air where his weapon was supposed to be. "WHERE THE HELL IS IT?"

"Your machine?"

"My 3D Maneuver Gear!" Eren's eyes darted left and right, searching for the familiar glint of metal of his gear.

"We hid it."

Eren stalked forward and grabbed Jack by the collar of his shirt.

"Where?"

A slow smile spread the winter guardian's lips.

"Not telling."

"Tell me or I swear I will destroy this place and—"

"And what? You'll transform into your titan form?"

If Eren was surprised, he did not let it show as he steered his eyes away from Jack to Bunny, who also had a grin on his face. Eren roughly threw aside Jack and marched over to Bunny.

"How did you know?"

"It doesn't matter, Eren. We know and we care little about it." North approached the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. "But know this," He bent forward until his mouth was leveled with the brunet's ear. "You are free to turn into a Titan and destroy my workshop, but you will never find your toy."

Eren scowled. Despite the warm welcome he had received prior from this man, he was sure that the threat was no mere bluff. He stomped back to the chair and plopped down, one hand pressed against his forehead in frustration.

"Let me guess, you won't return it unless I take part in this charade?"

Tooth flew over to where he sat. "Eren, if the Man on the Moon chose a new guardian – which in this case, is you – then that means that our long-time enemy is alive and is bound to unleash terror once more."

Eren looked up, curious eyes meeting Tooth's serious ones.

"Who's the enemy?"

"Pitch Black. The Boogeyman."

Eren scoffed. Were they really serious? Their enemy was a fictional entity weaved into bedtime stories to scare children into behaving.

"Yeah, I'm going to need more info than that. You need to tell me more about this," Eren chuckled as he air-quoted the word, "boogeyman."

"A fallen guardian." Jack explained. "We defeated him and he was swallowed up by his own fear. But it seems that he's escaped."

"And will once again threaten the children." North added as he looked at the globe.

"See that, Eren?" Jack pointed to the globe before flying over to it. "These lights represent each and every child around the world who believes in us, that we're real, that we exist. There was once a time when Pitch planned for them to lose that belief and fill them with fear. He almost succeeded, you know…"

He heard a muffled reply from Eren and turned to see Tooth with her finger in Eren's mouth as she did a close up inspection of the boy's teeth.

Jack chuckled. "Tooth, Eren's getting uncomfortable."

Tooth, realizing her fascination for teeth has gotten the best of her, apologized and withdrew from her 'inspection'. "Sorry! I was just…they say that Titans' teeth are hard as diamonds…and wow, they really are."

The brunet was weirded out and moved as far as he can away from the tooth fairy.

"So, what now?"

"Simple, Eren. You help us with this one mission – this mission to defeat Pitch Black – and we will give you back your freedom."

Eren's eyes snapped towards the large man.

"Do you swear?"

"Yes." North answered with a smile.

Their eyes met and neither broke contract for seconds. It was Eren that looked away first.

"Fine. But first," Eren grinned, showing his teeth and making Tooth ecstatic at the tip-top condition they're in, "I need a shower and a shave."

Eren is now a guardian! What does he say to this and how will the guardians accept him more? Special thanks to Blackrain105 for beta-reading my story :)