Disclaimer: I do not own copyrights to Rise of the Guardians. I just saw the movie once and it was EPIIIC.

NYAA.

Keep in mind that this is largely derived from the movie and not the book series. However, even then some things have been tweaked – I did try to stay true to the movie.

Nyaa.

=^'.'^=

Chapter 1

Once upon a time, in the sleepy little village of Shade Grove, there lived three sisters. They were the daughters of the village's wise women and cunning men, though the three young witches always sought to gain enjoyment from their family powers. They found ways to stay beautiful, nab handsome husbands, and made sure that they never had to do a lot of real work.

One day, however, their world came crashing down as a rich man, Lord Morose, came to live in Shade Grove. He had a way of crushing the spirits of the villagers, who weren't quite as serious as himself. Before long, even the three sisters found that their powers could no longer give them the things they wanted, so they came up with a plan to get Morose out of their hair.

They had a fourth sister, much younger than themselves, who they convinced Lord Morose to marry. The youngest didn't want to marry, but the decision was made by her sisters, since their parents were long gone.

A jealous and secretive man, Lord Morose had a tower built outside of the village, convinced that there were others in the village who would try to steal his bride. He was right; this sister was well-liked by the children of the village, and so she was also well-liked by the parents, who got it into their minds that the gloomy man from the city was mistreating his wife.

So the villagers tried to storm the tower, but something went terribly wrong. Soon, the entire tower had erupted in flames, taking the lives of everyone inside…

Stitch Witch perked her head when she heard the far-off whimpers of a child in the middle of the night. One of 'her' children. She took off over the treetops, hopping from one pine to the next as though she were a rogue zephyr.

She was within the little German village of Shade Grove within seconds. A shadow in the night, she twisted and turned in flight, slipping in one of many open windows. Such a trusting little village…

Inside, a messy-haired boy sat up in bed, covering his eyes. The Sandman hadn't come yet; obviously, a bad dream had come of its own accord. She looked around the room and picked up a stuffed horse, which she galloped around the room once she had the boy's attention. He watched with guards up as his toy floated over to him, stopped, and whinnied. He looked just beyond the horse carefully. "S… Stitch Witch…?"

She was sewn into view, banishing her invisibility. The pale, stitched-together young woman with the wild red hair and soot-colored eyes smiled gently at the boy. He looked relieved to see this terror, taking his horse from her and hugging it as she sat beside him on the bed. "Bad dream, Gunter?" she asked softly, arranging his blankets.

He nodded, frowning. "I have to give a speech at school tomorrow…" the shy boy lamented, lying back in his bed.

Stitch Witch tucked him in and ruffled his hair. "Talking in front of people is the worst, isn't it?"

"Yeah… I don't wanna do it…" He looked anxious.

She smiled. "Running from your fears doesn't make them go away." she pointed out. "I should know. I scare kids all the time."

He giggled a little, then looked at something over her shoulder. "…What's that?"

Stitch Witch turned in time to see a golden vapor of sand glide past her head. Her smile quickly returned as she looked back at Gunter. "It's dream sand, silly. It makes sure you'll have good dreams."

"Oh." As the stream tickled his nose, his eyelids grew very heavy, and he yawned. Instantly, he was asleep.

She hummed to herself, watching the boy sleep for a moment, giving Sandy his time to work. As soon as the Guardian of Dreams was gone, she flew from the window, once again nothing but a shadow. She inspected several bedrooms, then took off over the trees again, until she was perched atop her ruined tower. From there, she had a perfect view of the village and much of the dark forest.

For countless years, she had watched over this one village, ever since her resurrection at the unseen hands of the Man in the Moon. The night of the fire had been the last for her as a human. It had also been the last for her husband, although she never bothered to find out where he had gone.

Keeping an eye on Shade Grove, where she had been well-known in her human days, allowed her to gather power without expending too much of it. Shoot; she was probably still riding off of the fear accumulated from the Dark Age! Her forte was scaring children, alright – first she'd scare them, getting the power she needed to survive, and then she'd instantly comfort them.

Other minor fear-based entities like herself had come and gone throughout the years. They always had a habit of looking down their noses at her and her tactics, claiming that the almighty Boogeyman would wipe her off of the map if he ever came across her.

The next time she'd hear of these entities, she only ever got news of how the Boogeyman had destroyed them for think they were anywhere near his level.

That was what set her apart. While she enjoyed scaring the kids, she didn't enjoy tormenting them just to get a little extra power. So, instead of parents telling their kids not to believe in her, they would just reminisce about the days when they also played with the village's 'imaginary' friend; instead of using the Boogeyman to scare children into compliance, they said the Stitch Witch would hide them in her tower and lock them up.

Her tower was much scarier than she was to children. Even the adults believed that Lord Morose's ghost still wandered its halls. Thank goodness for the powerful superstitious beliefs of small villages…

"We have big problem." North gazed at his globe of lights with a somber frown, burly arms folded over his massive chest.

The Guardians had been called together thanks to dark spot on the globe, which was slowly snuffing out lights. So far, they all seemed to be centered in Germany.

"What's so big about it? It's just one little country." Jack hovered over it for a better look. "Just one of us could fix this problem in a single day!"

"Pitch has tried this before." Tooth flew up to hover next to the Winter Spirit. "He inspired a few of the scarier stories that the Grimm brothers collected."

"He inspired bedtime stories? Wow, you're right. That is bad." Jack smirked lazily, crossing his arms.

"Not the ones that parents read their kids now." Bunnymund quipped, frowning. "She said the scary ones, the ones that usually ended up with someone in pain or dead. Children in Germany are still scared of him in some areas thanks to those stories." Sandy nodded his agreement.

"I see." Jack inspected the country again. "Well, it looks like he hasn't been able to even touch this little bunch of lights here…"

"Shade Grove." North said, not even needing to see where Jack – and now Tooth – was looking. "The children there have always believed very powerfully."

"Why?" Jack looked at them.

They all shrugged. "Dunno." Bunnymund said. "There must be a local entity. Shade Grove is a small place. Always has been. The only time that that bunch of blips went out was during the Dark Ages. It was the first to light back up when we started cleanin' up Pitch's mess – way before other areas."

Jack exchanged looks with Tooth, then gazed back down. Amid the black inkiness of Pitch's influence, the little bundle of lights looked even smaller. "Well… Maybe we should have a look around! I mean, there's got to be a reason Pitch can't touch that village, right? If it's because of a 'local entity' or whatever, they might be in trouble!"

"Jack's right." Tooth agreed.

"Fine. You two go there now." North directed. "We will look at the other places where Pitch has already brought fear to children."

It was the early morning – so early that the boots crunched against the frost still covering the ground as children walked to the bus. Their school was a few miles away, in another town that was bigger than their sleepy little village.

As a few kids walked past one of the storefronts, a crate rumbled, catching their attention. They stopped, curious. Taking a moment to look at one another with uncertainty, one of them – a girl – finally walked over slowly. She leaned forward carefully.

A black kitty jumped out at her with a soul-stopping yowl. The girl and her friends all jumped back and screamed, then began laughing at one another. The cat purred and rubbed against the girl's legs, as if apologizing. The kids crowded around the animal to give her a few pats on the head.

"Thanks for the wake-up, Stitches!" one of them giggled as they hurried to join the others at the bus stop.

She watched them leave with calm, golden eyes, then darted into the shadows of a gap between buildings. Returning to a more human form, she climbed atop a roof where she could watch the kids pile on their bus and ride away from the village. Away from her. She wasn't worried – there was no fear entity around for several hundred miles.

Still, something made the hairs on the back of her neck tingle and stand on end.

A sound caught her ear, making Stitch Witch look around suspiciously. No one made trees whisper or shadows flicker except her, and she'd eat dog food before she let a strange fear-spreader enter her village and scare her kids! A small knife appeared in one hand, and a sword in the other.

She slithered over to the tree-line to investigate, her piercing eyes gazing further into the foliage than human eyes could. Another sound caught her ears, taking her across the village in the length of a second. Then another, and she was just as quickly atop another roof. When there were no further sounds, her weapons disappeared, and she put a hand on her hip while rubbing her chin. Whoever this was, they were good…

Frowning, she suddenly contorted her spine backwards, catching Jack Frost and the Tooth Fairy off-guard in the middle of trying to sneak up on her. Fixing her posture and turning around like a normal person, she said, "If you're going to scare a fear-spreader, you're going to have to be a lot more surprising than that. Now, why are two Guardians in my village?" She pointed between the two of them. "You on a honeymoon or somethin'?"

"What? No, no, nothing like that!" Tooth said with a nervous giggle, blushing.

Jack shook his head. "We're here because Pitch might be closing in on your territory. Be glad it's us and not him that you're talking to."

"Pitch Black?" Stitch Witch looked alert, straightening up. "Why would he come here? Children here don't even hear of the Boogeyman!"

"That could be reason enough for him." Jack grumbled. "He's touchy enough when children stop believing in him because their parents tell them to."

"So I've heard." Stitches' eyes darted in the direction that the bus traveled. Her nerves jumbled. "I have to go."

"Wait!" Tooth yelped, but it was too late; the Witch had vanished. She looked at Jack helplessly. "Should we follow her?"

"No. She'll be back. I mean, she's local, right?"

She nodded quickly, still looking worried. On her shoulder, Baby Tooth squeaked before taking off after their host entity. "Oh…! Stay safe!" Tooth called after her.

"Now, let's have a look around here!" Jack immediately began flying among the buildings, noticing many of the open windows. It was a bit bizarre, considering how it was moving into autumn, and winter after that. A lack of icy dust on the open windows' panes told him that they'd been opened just that morning. "That's weird."

"What? What's weird?" Tooth zipped over to him, looking at the window pane as well.

"All of these open windows…" He looked around a little. "They're all kids' bedroom windows. I guess the kids here like the cold."

"Hm…" Tooth darted into a bedroom and began ransacking it in her fidgety way. She'd pick something up, look at it for all of a nanosecond, then put it back and move on to the next thing.

"Uh… What're you doing?" Jack asked, poking his head in the window.

"Ah-hah! A clue!" Tooth exclaimed, holding up a crayon drawing. "She visits them at night. See?" She handed him the picture, which showed the Witch with a smiling child, handing him a horse, which was also smiling. "I think they do it as an invitation. Some kids do the same thing when they've lost a tooth, so it's easier for my fairies to visit!"

Jack looked at the stuffed horse on the bed, then back at the picture. "But I thought that fear entities like her and Pitch lived off of… you know… fear."

=^-.-^=

Pitch didn't show up in this chapter, and that sort of makes me sad. Anyone who reads my Danny Phantom fanfic Vlad's Son will probably giggle to see Stitch Witch traipsing about in here. I had a wicked-weird dream about her having three older sisters, and then suddenly everything went movie-verse RotG on me… Which is how I conceived this.

Nyaa.

So, uh… Sorry about that! Nyaha! Really kind of a weird idea, too, considering how many people pair off Pitch with a Halloween entity, and Stitches is more of a… ghost story. Lol. I kicked around the Halloween thought for awhile, actually, but it just didn't seem like her bag.

Nyaa.