The Star-Crossed Guardians

Chapter Fifteen- The Cure

A bright light emanated from within Jack. It filled the whole cave. I turned away. When it finally faded, I looked back to see if my idea had worked or not.

"Jack?" I waited for a response. He looked down at his body, like he was making sure everything was working right again. He looked up at me, and smiled.

"Cue..." We ran to each other and hugged. Quickly, I pulled away.

"I figured it out! I learned how to defeat Eris and turn our friends back!"

"Fantastic! I'll help take care of the octopi!"

"Good idea!" I watched him run off and turned to Eris, who was almost firetruck red with anger.

"How? How did you do it!?" she screamed.

"The one thing you can't take away. Love. Prepare for defeat, Eris. It ends now!" I slung in an arrow and released it at her. She neatly dodged and sent an arrow back at me. I hit it away and rushed her, wielding my bow like a sword. She dodged every move I made. I decided to change tactics.

"You're good, lady. But I'll be right back. I have some friends to visit!" I grinned and ran away, like every good protagonist.

"No! Lethe! Get her!"

Heavy stomping came from my left. I looked just as he lunged for me. I slid underneath him and he fell off of the other side. I kept running. I actually laughed at his foolishness!

When I reached the edge, I jumped and summoned my wings. I picked my first volunteer.

"Tooth!" I yelled. I aimed and as soon as she looked up at me, I shot my arrow at her. A light that wasn't as bright as the first one filled the cavern. Once it dimmed, I continued to the other two. Once they were back to normal, I flew back to Eris and landed, but didn't retract my wings, just in case.

"Why don't you give it up, Eris?" I taunted.

"Because winners never quit!" she threw more arrows at me, but I cleanly dodged them all. I felt stronger; more confident. Was this my doing?

"You won't win this. You should have realized that the moment you lost me. Your greatest asset." I kept sauntering towards her. She kept sliding backwards, until finally, she was up against a cliff edge. I notched an arrow and held it at her throat.

"Enough is enough. I don't want to have to do this."

"Then don't." She grinned and I immediately knew what she was thinking. I dropped it like it was hot as a body flew above me and took her down to the abyss. Lethe turned to look up at me, sorrow in every crease of his face. Then, he blinked and smiled. Not an evil smile, but one of true satisfaction. And he disappeared.

Jack, North, Tooth, Bunny, and my father all gathered behind me, looking down at the endless crack. Jack and my father both put their hands on my shoulders and touched. They looked at each other and I looked at both of them. My father had a stern look and Jack had an innocent, nervous smile. I looked up, groaned, and walked away from the crack. Then, I turned and put my hands on my hips.

"Well? Are we going to leave this place or not? It's been FOREVER since I've seen sunshine!"

They all looked at each other, then back at each other and nodded, all grinning happy grins.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When we arrived, I cured Sandy and we all celebrated our victory over goddess of chaos and the god of forgetfulness with a huge feast. My mom, of course, was picked up on our way back. She was so happy to see me, she started crying. I never took Mom to be the whiney sort of person. She was always super strong. I've never seen her cry until now. I did feel bad though, since my parents were still alive and the others' weren't. So, I celebrated with them (and they were present for my Guardian ceremony) when we hung out for a little bit in the library until they agreed with me that they should get home and that I should celebrate with my friends. I sent them home using one of North's snowglobes. I was about to rejoin the others when Jack came in.

"Hey," he said, closing the door behind him.

"Hey," I answered. He sat next to me on the couch and leaned his staff against the couch behind him.

"Uhm... So... You wouldn't happen to remember what happened while you were under Eris's spell, do you? I asked. He shook his head and I sighed a breath of relief. Maybe confessing my love right now wasn't the best idea. Especially since we're both Guardians. It's like dating a coworker. Is that bad?

"I do remember pieces though. It was almost like a dream."

'Shoot!' I thought. "Anything in particular?" Internally, I was screaming. Externally, I was just smiling normally.

"Not really. Though there was this one part that I think is my favorite part about the whole thing." I nodded slowly, a blush rising to my cheeks. He scooched a little closer to me and grinned his usual cheeky grin.

"I think there's a little something you want to tell me."

'HE KNOWS!!!' I was crying on the inside now. I hated confrontations. But, I had just come up with a good way to skirt around it!

"Well, that depends. Do you have something to say to me?"

That got him. For about a second though. He inched closer again, his face inches again.

"Actually, there's something I've wanted to tell you the moment I saw you." I gulped.

"Y-Yeah? What is it?" And he leaned even closer, bringing his lips to my ear.

"Your ponytail is a little off-center."

"H-Hunh!?" I threw my hands up to my hair as he laughed. Suddenly, he picked me up and set me on his lap, my legs draped over his.

"I'm kidding, Cue. What I really wanted to say, is this..." He took my chin in his cold, firm hand and turned my head so I was staring into his beautiful, icy blue eyes. He pulled me closer... and closer...

"Hey! You guys 're missin the part- Oooooh~ Am I interruptin' somethin'?" Bunny barged in, eggnog in his hand. We both looked at him, sort of irritated. He laughed and left, closing the door behind him.

"Now, where were we?" he said, turning back to me. I smiled, blushing, took his face in my hands and pulled him to me, kissing him. When we pulled away from each other, we smiled. Jack went in for another, but I stopped him, a thought clicking into place.

"Hey, you remember when I told you that I couldn't see your color, right?" He nodded. "Well, I think I may have found the reason as to why." He cocked his head, listening. I put my forehead to his.

"It's because you're my soulmate." That made him smile and kiss me again.

"Hey, can we..." I wanted to bring up what he said in the cave. About his envy of us other Guardians, but I didn't know if now was the time to talk about it or not.

"Can we... What?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Can we... go join the others? They're probably missing us and Bunny is probably making up stories already."

He nodded. "Sure thing, Cue."

I stood and took his hand, after he grabbed his staff of course.

As we walked back to the party, hand in hand, I remembered something my father told me.

"Hey, you know why my Mom and Dad named me Jackie?" We stopped at the big door that led to the dining room.

"No. Why?"

I smiled. "They named me after you."