Hey everyone! A new week, a new chapter! I know Mondays suck, but hopefully this story makes them a little better for you guys! (And yes, I just now fully processed that I update every Monday. I got a lot on my mind, guys!)

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! We're up to 37 reviews now, guys! I'm so excited! I get really happy every time I read a review, and it just makes my day a little bit better each time!

I have a challenge for you all. If you can get this story to 50 reviews after this chapter is posted, I will post the next chapter early. I have plans for slight Jelsa to begin in the next chapter, as well as bonding time with two of the Guardians. I know, we're already 13 chapters in and there's no official Jelsa yet, but it's coming, I promise. If you can get this chapter to 50 reviews, you'll be one chapter closer to Jack and Elsa bonding time! I know you can do it!

Now, enough of my blabbering. ON WITH THE STORY! Enjoy, everyone!

Chapter 13: Medusa

Everyone gasped at the name, and Elsa screamed as another intense wave of pain coursed through he body. Eugene ran off to try and find anything that might help the Snow Queen. Anna grabbed her hand tightly and Kristoff rested his hand on his sister-in-law's shoulder. Pabbie tried to use his dream sand to help, but it was no use. Pitch sat on the end of the bed at Elsa's feet and watched the suffering Queen with compassion softening his golden eyes, and knew he wouldn't be able to help her.

"I thought Medusa was just a story, and that she was already dead," Anna said quietly, and Pitch shook his head sadly.

"Unfortunately," he began, "that is not the case. Medusa was killed, since she was mortal, but her powers were strong enough to make her a spirit, like how Elsa's did. No one resurrected her because her powers were strong enough to keep her alive. The other older spirits know her as the spirit of heartbreak, since she's been through so much. When she was human, she wanted to devote her life to Athena, and worked in the Goddess of Wisdom's temple. She was very beautiful, and some claimed she was more beautiful than Athena herself, so the Goddess already didn't like her. One day, Poseidon came to the temple and saw the beautiful Medusa, and fell in love with her. She had devoted her life to Athena and to remaining virgin in honor of the goddess, but Poseidon wanted her as his own. He raped her in the temple, at the altar of the goddess he personally knew, and Athena was angry. She could not use her magic to attack Poseidon directly because he was as strong as she was and would stop her attack before the spell could be completed, so she got her revenge on the mortal Medusa instead. She took her beautiful hair away and replaced it with poisonous snakes, corrupted her eyes, and made her so hideous that anyone who looked directly at her would be turned to stone. Poseidon immediately left the now gruesome mortal he had fallen in love with for her looks, and the woman was forced to leave the temple. She went to live with two other women who were born with the looks Medusa had been cursed with, until Athena helped a young man named Perseus kill her. Everyone believed her to be dead, but a few years later, her magic was still strong and Medusa came back to life as a spirit. Her true form is the monster she was turned into, but she can take on the form of a beautiful girl in order to kill a man who wronged her, get revenge, or break someone's heart. She has a man working for her, like how the yetis work for North and the eggs work for Bunny, who will break a girl's heart and destroy her without batting an eye. Elsa, I don't know what you did to make her mad, but she's attacking you now," the dark man explained, and Elsa's head began to spin. She had never met Medusa, and didn't even know she really existed. How could I have upset a spirit I don't even know? she thought.

"Maybe it's because your centers are opposites. Medusa thrives on broken hearts, and Elsa helps people fall in love and avoid heartbreak. Maybe Elsa helped too many people avoid heartbreak, so now Medusa wants her gone so she can't interfere," Eugene said thoughtfully, and Elsa closed her eyes. The pain was finally beginning to subside, but she wasn't sure it was gone yet so she didn't want to move. She suddenly felt extremely tired, and would have fallen asleep right then and there had there not been so many people in the room.

"Maybe, but no matter what the reason is, we need to get that snake out of her heart immediately," Kristoff said, and the others nodded.

"Elsa, I think it's time for Jack to remember," Anna said, and the Snow Queen's eyes opened again.

"Wait, he still doesn't believe? I thought you would've given him back his missing memories after you defeated me," Pitch said curiously, and Elsa shook her head slightly.

"No, he doesn't remember. After we defeated you, he was happy, but he still wasn't ready to believe, and I started sending Olaf into the world. I had hoped he would interact with Jack and get him ready to believe, but before he could, Jack met the fairy he was with when you became a Guardian," she told Pitch, and her voice was still shaky and hoarse from screaming in pain. Pitch just nodded in understanding, and Anna looked between the two of them with something unreadable in her eyes before focusing once more on Elsa. Faylinn flew over and landed on Elsa's shoulder, looking at her worriedly.

"Elsa, it's time. It's hard enough having to hide the truth around him, and he's ready. If you're still worried about forcing him into anything, trust me when I say he'll do what his heart tells him to do. If he loves Peri, he'll stay with her, but if not, then he'll go with who he wants to stay with," the feathered girl told her older sister reassuringly, and Elsa smiled at her gratefully while Kristoff pulled his wife into a hug. Pitch watched curiously, and there was a pang of something Elsa had never seen before in his eyes, something she thought she recognized as jealousy, but she decided to wait and ask him later, and she looked back at her sister with warmth in her blue eyes.

"Thanks, Anna," she said gratefully, and her sister smiled. Pitch, however, looked utterly confused.

"Um, Anna…?" he asked slowly, and Elsa realized he still didn't know the Guardians were actually her family members. She smiled sheepishly, and Kristoff and Eugene rubbed the backs of their necks in embarrassment.

"I totally forgot you didn't know…well, let me introduce you. Toothiana is actually my little sister Anna, North is her husband Kristoff, Sandman is Kristoff's grandfather Pabbie, who was the one to tell me that fear would be my enemy and took away Anna's memories when he cured her, and Bunny is my cousin's husband Eugene. Do you remember them?" she asked him, and Pitch's eyes widened in recognition and shock. His jaw dropped as he looked around at the others in the room, and Elsa watched as he took the Guardians standing before him and mentally replaced them with their past selves, and she couldn't hide her smile. He knew exactly who they were now, and finally his eyes landed on little Faylinn who was still resting on Elsa's shoulder.

"And is that…?" he asked slowly, and Elsa nodded, knowing exactly who he was talking about.

"That's Anna and Kristoff's daughter, Faylinn, who died when she was a month old. She was too sweet to not bring back, and I decided she didn't get to do everything she was meant to in life so here she is, getting her second chance," she told Pitch, and everyone smiled at what Elsa said, including the Nightmare King himself. Faylinn flew over to Pitch hesitantly, remembering when he held her captive, but his smile was warm and honest and she wasn't quite so afraid. He held out his hand, and she looked back at Elsa as if to ask for approval, and landed in his open palm when her aunt nodded encouragingly.

"Well, she definitely looks like Anna. Did she always have a purple eye, or is that a fairy thing?" he asked the group, and Anna spoke up.

"She always had a purple eye. No one could explain it, but we all just figured that it was a combination of my blue eyes and Kristoff's brown ones. Our eye colors switched when Elsa revived us, so Faylinn's eye color makes more sense now, but that was what we thought it was when she was born," Anna explained, and Pitch nodded in understanding. They were about to say more, but Elsa yawned not-so-discretely, and they all looked at each other with a knowing smirk. Pabbie showed images of a crescent moon and Elsa sleeping, and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Elsa needs to get some rest," Anna announced, and everyone but Pitch stood to leave.

"Pitch? Are you coming?" Kristoff asked him, not entirely ready to trust the Nightmare King to be alone with their Snow Queen.

"In a bit. She should probably have someone around to watch her, in case the pains come back or something changes, and since I know who caused this, I'll take first watch," he explained to the others, and they all paused in the doorway with wary expressions. Elsa waved them off.

"Go. I'll be fine. I've been alone with him before, and he proved that he could be a Guardian," she informed them, and with one last protective look, her family left the two alone. Elsa sighed and rested her head on her pillow, exhaustion plain on her face, but Pitch sensed something else rolling off the queen in waves. This was something Pitch knew well, and he would have noticed it in the queen any day, just by looking at her.

"You're afraid," he told her simply, and she opened her big, blue eyes to meet his narrow, golden ones, and he noticed the fear he knew so well shine plainly in her eyes.

"I know," she answered with a sigh, and Pitch was taken aback by this side of her. Usually, the Snow Queen would chant that stupid catchphrase her father taught her whenever she was scared. He remembered listening to her repeat it, that conceal, don't feel, don't let it show, and even the thought of it made his skin crawl. Hiding fear didn't make it go away, and telling yourself you didn't feel it didn't make it true. This time, however, she wasn't even going to try to hide it, and her openness about being afraid surprised him.

"You're not going to try to hide it?" he asked, and she simply shrugged before shaking her head.

"Why should I? Fear is as much a part of who I am as it is a part of who you are, Pitch, and I accepted that the day I died. It's ok for me to be afraid as long as my fears don't get out of control. And besides, even if I tried to hide it, you'd still know and call me out on it, so why try?" she asked him, and he realized just how much the immortal queen had matured in three centuries, and how tired she really was. He knew this wasn't a physical exhaustion but a mental one at having to worry about her family of Guardians, the children of the world, and fighting him, and he suddenly understood what she meant when she said she was tired. He smiled slightly, with understanding in his eyes, and rested his hand on one of her pure white boots.

"I get it. So, what are you afraid of this time?" he asked her, silently wishing that she would be willing to tell him. He hoped she felt as comfortable around him as he now felt around her. For centuries, their relationship had been complicated, and centered around fear, but he was one of her Guardians now, and part of him hoped that counted for something. She sighed once more and played with a few small snowflakes through the room before meeting Pitch's gaze.

"Medusa winning," she stated, like it was the simplest thing in the world, but the dark man only looked at her with confusion, so she continued. "I know I didn't know she existed before, and I only just now found out that she has been attacking me, but I don't want her to win. She's the spirit of heartbreak, and for three centuries, Jack has been slowly breaking my heart without even realizing it, all because he doesn't remember or believe in me. What if he gets his memories back and wants nothing to do with me? I don't think I could handle him remembering me and still not believing, or remembering me and hating me because I waited so long to give him back his memories of me…" she trailed off, and Pitch empathized with the queen he watched grow up. He rubbed his hand repeatedly up her boot-covered leg to her knee then back down, trying to make her feel better.

"Elsa, I saw how you were when you were around him. Nothing could touch you, including me. You were always happy when you came back to your room after visiting him, and when I had the chance to see the two of you together at your coronation, you were both really happy. I don't think he would break your heart, and even if he thought he wanted to be with that fairy, not even death and memory loss could ruin the bond the two of you shared. It's the strongest bond I've ever seen, and as you learned earlier, I've been around for a long time. Medusa won't win, Elsa, I promise. We'll get that snake out of you, make Jack believe, and defeat her," he swore to her, and she smiled.

"Thank you, Pitch," she said, then sat up slightly and focused her magic. There was a swirl of snowflakes and when they disappeared, a box made of ice was in her hands, containing a locket with a snowflake in the center, two things Pitch had seen Elsa with many times. She smiled as she rested her hand over the lid, and the Nightmare King realized Jack's memories of her were held inside the snowflake box.

"You're ready?" he asked her, and the blonde nodded.

"Yeah. Anna was right, it's time he remembered," she said. Pitch smiled proudly at her, and she handed him the box.

"Speaking of Anna, will you give this to her and make sure she gives it to Jack when he's not around Periwinkle? This box means a lot to me and I don't want her touching it, and I'd rather her not see it. It's personal and I don't want her getting any ideas about her wanting it because she controls snow and ice too…" she trailed off, and Pitch held the box protectively, smiling at the queen's lack of trust in the girl. She trusted him now, the same way she trusted her family, and he wasn't going to ruin that.

"Of course I will. Now you should get some sleep. And don't worry, I'll keep any nightmares away," he promised her with a smile, and she smiled back before closing her eyes. He waited until her breathing evened out and he was sure she was asleep, then went to find the others. They were out in the main room of the workshop, whispering quietly to each other, and looked up when Pitch walked in. Anna gasped when she saw he was holding Elsa's box, and flew over as he held it out to her.

"She wanted you to give this to Jack, and wanted to make sure you gave it to him when his girlfriend wasn't around to see or touch it," he told the fairy simply, and she took the box almost reverently before nodding.

"I'll give it to him. Maybe we can distract Peri while he gets his memories back," she said, looking towards the others for help. Kristoff and Eugene smiled mischievously at each other before Kristoff nodded.

"Leave that to us," he declared, and everyone smiled.

"Oh, and Pabbie, she's asleep now. Give her some good dreams?" Pitch asked the golden man who was essentially his opposite, and the silent man just nodded and flew off.

So? What do you think? Do you like this chapter?

Also, do you guys want just one giant story that'll be at least 100 chapters, probably more, or do you want this to become a series? Because I have plans for at least a sequel, possibly a trilogy coming from this depending on how the story goes. Which would you all prefer? Add that to your review and let me know your thoughts!

Snowflakes of fun and love to you all!