AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sooooorryyyyy about the cliffhanger. Hope you guys don't hate me!

Hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review!

DISCLAIMER: Rise of the Guardians is owned by Dreamworks. I own my OCs Annabelle, Oliver, Fawn and the robins.

Chapter 13 – Stone Hearts and Hand Grenades

JACK'S POV

"ANNA!" I screamed as I watched her drop like a stone.

I started to dive down to catch her but Fawn shot past me. I grabbed her arm and yanked her back up.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" I screamed at her. "Haven't you done enough?"

"I wasn't trying to hit her you idiot!" she yelled back. "I was trying to hit you! She got in the way trying to protect you!"

I froze in shock. I hadn't expected that. Of course I knew Anna would jump in front of me to protect me. I would do the same for her. But I had honestly thought Fawn had fired at Anna deliberately. I hadn't seen what had happened; I'd only turned round when I heard Anna screaming.

I slowly dropped her arm. "I…I thought you'd aimed at her."

Fawn's face softened slightly. "Anna's my friend. I wouldn't try to kill her. Just…maim or seriously injure."

I chuckled in spite of myself. "You like Harry Potter?"

Fawn nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. I've read all the books and watched the films."

I sighed slightly. "Anna won't watch them for some reason."

Fawn's mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding? They're awesome!"

We both looked at each other, and after a few moments we both smiled.

"I guess I wouldn't know you liked them too, huh?" Fawn said.

I nodded slightly. "I guess not."

I'd never taken the time to actually look at Fawn properly. Her bright blue eyes seemed to have little circles in the iris, almost like bubbles. Looking at them I felt a pang of familiarity, but I couldn't think of where from.

I noticed Fawn clenched her jaw slightly before looking down. That seemed to snap me out of trying to figure out where I knew Fawn from and brought me back to reality.

"I need to go find Anna," I said, starting to fly off.

Fawn grabbed my arm and I turned to face her, shocked at the first non-violent contact I think we'd ever had.

"I'm coming with you," she said with the same steely determination in her eyes that I'd seen in Anna's countless times. "I didn't want to hurt her. This is my fault and I want to help."

I nodded, smiling again. "Thank you."

We both glanced back at Oliver who was just staring at us.

"Are you coming to help or are you just going to leave?" Fawn asked.

"How can you help him?" he asked, sounding shocked. "You hate him."

"But I don't hate Anna," she said simply. "What happened was my fault and I need to go find her. If that means helping Jack then so be it."

I felt another pang in my chest, and I realised that I felt truly grateful towards her. I knew how she felt about me because I felt exactly the same way about her, and yet she would help me because we both cared about Anna. I nudged her so she looked round at me and I smiled a real smile. She smiled back, understanding exactly what I was trying to say.

I looked back round at Oliver. "If you're not going to help then get out of here. If you dare try to find her to hurt her when she's weak then I swear to God I will kill you."

Oliver backed up slightly when he heard the icy tone in my voice. He knew I wasn't kidding.

I turned back and shot down into the forest to find Anna without another glance at Oliver, Fawn right behind me.

ANNA'S POV

Holy bag of flaming crap, I was in pain.

If you've ever broken your arm or leg then you'll understand what this pain was like. My wings are almost like two extra limbs. They aren't connected to my arms or anything. They have nerves just like skin does. So when a branch tears though your wing it's bloody painful, let me tell you.

When I smacked into the ground I was really badly winded, but I didn't pass out thankfully. I sat up slowly and winced. Looking round I could see that my right shimmering pink wing had a huge rip in it from the centre right up to the tip. The top half of my wing now hung over rather limply. Experimentally I twitched it and I had to bite my lip so I didn't cry out in pain.

I stood up wobbling, trying very hard to not fall over. I wanted nothing more than to curl up and rest so I could properly get my breath back, but I knew I had to keep moving. If Oliver knew I was hurt he might come after me since I probably couldn't fight back right now.

I started to stumble through the forest. I knew that Jack would be looking for me but I couldn't help him by staying in one place, because of Oliver again. I hated to make it harder for him, but I just had to hope Jack would find me anyway.

I felt really woozy from the pain and from falling from such a height. My head was pounding, and I doubted I was going to be able to walk very far. I would be able to heal my wing with my magic, but it would sap my remaining energy and I couldn't afford that. Every step I took jolted my wing and caused another strike of pain to zap through.

I had been walking slowly for around ten minutes when black dots started to dance in front of my eyes. My head was in as much pain as my wing was now and before I realised what was happening I was down on the ground, my vision fading more and more every passing second.

Before I fell unconscious someone landed on the ground in front of me. I could tell it was a boy, but I couldn't tell who it was.

"Jack…" I murmured, knowing that he'd be looking for me.

I fought to keep my eyes open but I couldn't. I passed out before I could hear anything the boy said.

When I came to the pain in my head was gone, and my wing hurt a lot less. I realised my head was resting on somebody's lap.

"…Jack?" I murmured, my voice croaky.

A voice, defiantly not Jack's, chuckled. "You wish."

I bolted up straight, turning round to see Oliver smirking slightly at me. The sudden movement caused pain to jolt through my wing again, and I winced.

"Lay back down," he said gently. "I'm trying to heal your wing but it's taking some time. My magic isn't really designed for fixing things."

I reflexly glared at him, automatically not trusting what he said. But my wing did feel better. Someone must have helped heal it and nobody else was around. With that in mind I slowly lay back down, allowing my ripped wing to spread out on the ground next to me. Oliver rested one hand on my shoulder to steady me and lay the other over the tear in my wing. A pale brown glow surrounded his hand and pulsed into my wing. Slowly but surely the remaining pain started to ebb away.

Neither of us said anything and, to be quite frank, it was getting rather awkward.

"So…" I started after a few minutes of silence, "why are you helping me and not kicking me while I'm down?"

Oliver chuckled. "Honestly? It's thanks to Fawn and that ice boy of yours."

I frowned. "Wait, they agreed on something?"

Oliver nodded. "Well, they're both looking for you. But it wasn't that. They realised they have something in common."

"What was that?" I asked.

"Harry Potter."

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

Oliver shrugged. "Fawn quoted some line from one of the films and it turns out Jack likes them too. If it hadn't been such a dire situation, ergo you being hurt and stuff, they may have actually bonded over it."

I started to laugh and Oliver smiled. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Harry Potter of all things!" I giggled. "I've never understood why Jack likes it so much."

"Fawn goes on about it a lot too," Oliver grinned. "I don't see the appeal either to be honest."

I raised an eyebrow. "So Fawn and Jack are going to bond over Harry Potter and we are going to bond over not liking Harry Potter?"

Oliver was silent for a few moments before he sighed.

"Despite what you may think, I don't enjoy hating you. I wish I didn't. It's this Polar thing which means we can't stand each other. The same curse means that Fawn and Jack are supposed to hate each other too, and yet for a few seconds they were able to have a civilised conversation about something they both enjoy. I guess it made me think…why couldn't we be like that?"

I considered what he'd said. I swallowed before I sat up and looked round at him.

"I'm sorry for mocking you earlier," I said. "And…I'm sorry for just fighting you without even thinking if there was another way to deal with this."

"I'm sorry too," Oliver said. "I…I was upset that kids didn't appreciate what I did. Everyone loves spring and summer and winter, but nobody cares about autumn. Kids just stay inside on their computers now. I got upset and angry…and since there was already tension between us because of this Polars thing I guess I took it out on you."

I hesitantly reached out and squeezed his hand. "Times change Oliver. Yeah, some kids won't want to go out in bad weather but that's always been the case. I promise you there are still children out there who jump in leaf piles and go foraging. Some of the most beautiful pieces of artwork have been inspired by the autumn colours you create. People do still enjoy autumn. I know I do."

Oliver slowly smiled and squeezed my hand back. "Thank you Anna. Really, thank you."

I grinned and he did too. If we could be like this…maybe this curse really could be broken.

At least I did think that until Jack flew out of nowhere and tackled Oliver away from me.

"Get away from her!" he yelled as they both smashed into a tree.

"Jack! Stop it!" I screamed at him as Fawn landed next to me.

"Anna!" she cried, pulling me into a hug. "Are you okay? I am so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you, honest!"

I quickly hugged her back before pulling away. "I know you didn't, and I'm fine. But Oliver isn't going to be if we don't do something!"

Fawn hugged. "Since when are you worried about Oliver?"

I rolled my eyes. "Long story. Come on, help me get them apart!"

Fawn nodded before running over and grabbing hold of Jack, pulling him back. I yanked Oliver to his feet and stood in front of him so Jack couldn't hurt him.

"Jack, stop it!" I said. "Oliver wasn't doing anything! He was helping me!"

Jack stopped struggling against Fawn, but Fawn wisely didn't let go. "Helping you?" he asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Oliver nodded. "I found her unconscious and was trying to heal her wing. You and Fawn actually started to agree on something earlier, so I figured maybe what you said was true. Maybe there is a way to get rid of this curse."

Jack looked shocked, but he slowly started to smile. "Does that mean Anna's okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Oliver held a hand up. "Actually, she's nearly fine. My magic isn't really designed for healing. It's better but I don't think it's fully healed. I wouldn't try flying with it yet if I was her."

Fawn let go of Jack and stepped forward. "Let me see. Maybe I can help."

I slowly stretched out my wing and, just like Oliver had said, it still hurt a little. Fawn held her hand over the nearly healed rip and it glowed yellow. I could actually feel the pain melting away and I smiled in relief.

Suddenly Jack laid his hand over Fawn's. His hand glowed pale blue. Fawn and I both frowned and him, but he was grinning. He looked over at Oliver and gestured with his head.

"Oli, come help," he said.

Oliver frowned. "Jack, what are you doing?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Just trust me, okay? Anna, help too."

I frowned and looked over at Oliver. He shrugged but came over and did as Jack said, laying his hand over Fawn and Jack's. I complied too and, as my hand glowed green, joined the other three. The pain in my wing was almost completely gone.

Suddenly a bright white light surrounded all four of us, seeming to emit from our glowing hands. I gasped as I felt a sharp pang in my heart, and it felt like a huge weight was lifted from my chest, one that I hadn't even realised was there in the first place.

The light faded and from the looks on the faces of the other three, they had all felt the same thing.

"What the heck was that?" Fawn asked, voicing what we had all been thinking.

"I was right!" Jack grinned, practically jumping up and down in glee.

"You were right about what?" I asked, finding it hard not to grin too at his reaction.

"Remember what Jacobi said?" Jack asked. "If we all worked together to achieve a common goal then the curse would be lifted."

I slowly looked over at my wing which was now fully healed. My mouth dropped open. "That's why you told Oliver and I to help," I murmured.

Fawn started to laugh. "Not bad Jackie!"

Jack laughed too and I raised an eyebrow. "You used to hate it when she called you that," I noted.

Jack grinned. "I guess…it doesn't bother me anymore."

"Well, that's proof you were right Jack!" Oliver grinned.

Jack smiled before swooping over and kissing me. "Don't worry. You're still my favourite."

I blushed in spite of myself while Oliver and Fawn both pretended to gag. "Get a room!" Fawn called out.

Jack and I both playfully glared at her before we all burst out laughing.

"I guess we should go tell North and the others the good news," I suggested once we'd all calmed down.

Fawn and Oliver's eyes lit up. "Wait, we get to go to the Pole?" Fawn practically squealed.

Jack and I both looked at each other and grinned.

"That's right…you've not been there before have you?" Jack chuckled.

"Oh man, this is going to be good," I grinned.

AN: I hope you all enjoyed this! Please revieeeeeew!