I'm pleasantly surprised with the reception of the first chapter and I felt like throwing you guys a little more. I hope to draw Dame soon, so watchers on deviantART, keep an eye out. Also, you guys know the Bells of Notre Dame song from the Disney Hunchback movie? Well, every time I listen to that song - which is rather often - I like to attribute a certain quote from that song with Dame now. "But you never can run from, nor hide what you've done from the eyes! The very eyes of Notre Dame!" Can't help it; it just fits so well with Dame and my concept for her :3

I do not own Rise of the Guardians, only Dame and the General.

Recap: An invincible golem army led by the soulless General reawakens and the Guardians turn to their former member, Notre Dame, for help. However, Dame has long since left the order after children stopped believing in her.

A hole in the ground opened up in the ruins of an underground castle as Bunny emerged and scanned his surroundings. "Strewth… this place has seen better days," he commented. The hole closed up and an iris burst from the ground. Bunny bent down and picked the flower before lightly patting his fur and making sure not a hair was out of place. He quietly strolled through the castle grounds, remembering when Dame first allowed him into her sanctuary. There was a time where it was the most elegant castle one could ever lay eyes on, but now it looked like the castle had been sacked and raided again and again and left abandoned for centuries. The walls were just crumbled heaps of debris and uneven rocks and wood splinters littered the floor. Bunny had to watch his step and be careful not to step on a sharp stone or get a splinter.

"Darl? Hello?" he called out, his voice echoing along the rocks, "Anyone home? It's me, your good mate Bunny!" He sharply turned when he heard a noise behind him, as small pebbles bounced down along the walls. "Darl?" he asked cautiously, eyeing the dark corners for any sign of movement. His eyes focused on a dark corner just a few feet from him as he cautiously approached it. "Dame?" he asked again.

He heard heavy and ragged breathing coming from the darkness before a hoarse and crisp voice finally spoke, "Wh-what are you doing here, Bunny?"

"Well, I came to see you of course. Why else would I be here?" he asked. "Dame, come out into the light so I can see you," he hushed gently, ushering her with his hand.

"No, I'd rather not," she answered.

"Come on, now, Darl. It's just me, I swear."

"I know it's just you, Bunny. I see everything my children see. Nice job with Pitch, by the way. I'm sure he'll be gone for good this time."

"Your sarcasm isn't wasted on me, Darl."

"And I'm sure Frost is going to work out great. Although, I did enjoy it when he called you a kangaroo. If I had known how much it would make you squirm, I would have started calling you 'kangaroo' a long time ago instead of 'tenderfoot'," Dame muttered with a light chuckle.

"That's different. I let you call me 'tenderfoot', just like how you let me call you 'Darl'!" Bunny chirped.

"Heh, 'let' is a strong word, tenderfoot," Dame said, adding short laugh before going quiet again. "How come you never came to visit?" she whispered tenderly.

"Well, I figured you wanted to be left alone, especially after you threw your hammer at me."

"…Sorry," she muttered.

"Don't worry about it. It didn't hurt… much. Listen, Dame, none of us blame you for leaving. Until Pitch almost beat us, none of us – I – didn't know what it felt like to not be believed in anymore. I know what you're going to say: that it was only for a few hours and you've lived like that for centuries, but I want you to know what we're still your friends. We're still here for you. I'm still here for you," Bunny said, tiptoeing towards the dark corner in which Dame hid while holding out her hand, gently ushering her to come out.

Silence followed before he heard the sound of pebbles slowly moving as a marble white, scaled and taloned leg slowly crept out of the shadows before the rest of her form joined under the light. The belts across her chest, around her waist and across her arms were worn out and barely holding together. Her armor platings were rusty and no longer shone like they used to. Her hammer and chisels were still strapped on her waist along with the circular blades across her chest. "Happy?" she asked, slightly bitter.

"Very much so!" Bunny chirped. "Now what do you say we head up to the Pole?"

"I'm not going Bunny. I'm not a Guardian anymore."

"Yes, you are! We need you, Dame. We can't do this without you!" Bunny pleaded.

"You're going to have to, Bunny. I am no Guardian anymore," Dame replied.

Bunny sighed and hung his head in defeat. "I'm sorry it had to come to this, Darl." Dame's eyes widened when she heard the light, double tap of his foot and before she could turn around to yell, shout and throw every curse she knew at him, she felt the ground beneath her disappear and swallow her up. Even though it had been centuries since she found herself in Bunny's tunnels, she recognized the slick feeling of the tunnel as she slide through it like a slide at a children's playground. She struggled to get on her hands and feet and found that she couldn't maintain a grip on the tunnel walls before she was suddenly ejected onto a hard tiled floor. She groaned before pushing herself roughly off the ground and brushing the dirt off her shoulders.

"You swore to me that you'd never do that!" Dame snapped at Bunny, who appeared out of the hole behind her.

"Well I'm sorry, but you were being stubborn!" Bunny argued back.

"Notre Dame! Old friend, is good to see you after so long!" North beamed, quickly drawing Dame into a large hug, against which she struggled greatly before pushing herself out of North's arms. "Now that you are here, I can explain situation!"

"You don't have to explain anything, North. Eyes of Notre Dame, remember?" she asked, pointing to the gargoyle high up in North's workshop.

"W-Wait, eyes of Notre Dame?" Jack asked, confused.

"Every gargoyle in the world, I carved by hand and brought to life with my water. I see and hear everything they see and hear," Dame answered.

"That's only a little disturbing…" Jack remarked, forming an uncomfortable cringe.

"Then you know why we need you, Dame. We have to stop the General and his army," said Tooth.

"And do the Man in the Moon's dirty work for him? I don't think so! That's why he created all of us, isn't it? To do everything he doesn't want to do!" Dame yelled, glaring at the moon visible through North's glass, domed ceiling.

"Now Dame, that is no way to talk about Man in Moon," North began, chastising her.

"You don't get it do you? He made all of us just as much as he made Pitch and the General! He's responsible for every good and bad spirit out there and when those bad spirits step beyond their station, who does he call on to clean up his mess?" Dame shouted, panting heavily. "No one up for answering? The Guardians! He's too cozy up on his moon to come down here and admit and fix his mistakes! Instead, he appoints his 'good' spirits as Guardians and has them fix his mistakes for him! He has us in constant warfare with his 'bad' spirits and it will never end. Well that life isn't for me! I refuse to be someone's lap dog and clean up crew."

"Look I don't mean to offend – well, this time I don't, I swear – but I used to think that the Man in the Moon didn't know what he was doing too, especially when he made me a Guardian. But he does everything for a good reason," said Jack.

"Good reason? Good reason?! The Man in the Moon is too proud and all high and mighty to admit when he's wrong! He didn't start creating spirits based on human lives until his biggest mistake!"

"The General," answered Bunny.

"The General, the Man in the Moon's greatest mistake that he won't admit: a soulless hunk of stone incapable of emotion and empathy that turned on him. That's why he started making us off existing lives. We can feel; the General can't. The General was his greatest failure and he created me to clean it up for him. I did that once already because I owed him, but I don't owe him anything anymore. I'm no genuine spirit like the rest of you, I'm just a replacement for a failed prototype," she said, before turning up to address the moon. "You should have just left me on that wall! I was better off hanging as a trophy!"

"I'm sensing a backstory here," said Jack.

"Well, before Dame was Dame, she was," started Tooth.

"You want to know what I was? Not all of us were a treasure-hunting warrior or the Queen of the Sisters of Flight! I was La Gargouille! In my old life, I was a dragon and I used to live in La Seine in France. There, I flooded homes and terrorized every boat that tried to make it by me and I enjoyed it. The humans eventually lured me into a trap and killed me. They burned my body and mounted my neck and head for all to see, where you should have left me be!" Dame spat at the moon before turning back to Jack. "So you tell me, Frost, why the Man in the Moon, with all the wisdom you claim he holds, would make a dragon that pillaged homes and killed families the Guardian of Homes and Family." Dame continued glaring at Jack, who cast his eyes downward away from hers, having no answer for her. "That's what I thought. It's time you all accepted the truth that I accepted centuries ago: the world doesn't need Notre Dame anymore. As much as I appreciate your concern, it's too late for me. None of my children breathe and I have no power anymore. Whatever you want to do to stop the General, you'll have to do it without me."

"Darl, don't go," Bunny pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Bunny." Dame climbed up to the glass dome and pushed open the window before disappearing into the snow.

Dame's backstory prior to becoming a Guardian is based on the legend of the Gargouille. As you guys can see, Dame's pretty bitter towards the Man in the Moon, but as you'll see in the next chapter, she's got bigger problems of her own.

Darl, short for darling, is Australian slang often used to refer to women.

Fading Away: The Guardians learn that centuries of not being believed in are starting to eat away at Dame, emotionally and physically.