Chapter 1

"Guys, I'm telling you it wasn't me!" Jack Frost said to his fellow guardians for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"There was a blizzard all across the face of Europe yesterday, mate," the Easter Bunny said the word mate with loathing, "On Easter!" Bunny's voice grew to a yell, "Millions of children didn't get to celebrate Easter because of the snow!"

"There have been snowstorms all across Europe for three weeks, Jack!" the Tooth Fairy said angrily. This startled Jack. Tooth had never really been angry with him before. "Millions of teeth lost and my fairies couldn't get to them!"

"I'm telling you guys I wasn't even in Europe!" Jack said again.

"Jack!" North said in his thick Russian accent, "Are you really going to tell us that you, Jack Frost, have nothing to do with the storms wreaking havoc in Europe?"

"Yes!" Jack insisted, "I'm telling you I didn't do it!"

"I knew this would happen!" Bunny said to North, "I knew we shouldn't make Jack a guardian. I said it. I told you all. This -" he gestured to Jack, " This nobody doesn't know anything about bringing joy to children or protecting them."

"I didn't do it," Jack said again. He couldn't believe he'd been summoned from a snowball fight at Jamie's house to the North pole to be accused of something he didn't do. "Come on, you guys know I wouldn't do something like this!"

"You have before," Bunny said.

"Oh, not this again," Jack rubbed his temples.

"Blizzard of '68 you ruined Easter for a lot of kids!" Bunny said.

"I didn't do it this time!" Jack insisted, "Come on, you guys! Sandy? North? You guys believe me, right?"

He was met with doubtful looks and accusing stares.

"Oh… jeez," Jack said and ran his fingers through his hair, "I'm leaving." He turned his back.

"What?! Jack, you have to stop the storms," Tooth said, grabbing his shoulders and turning his around again.

"I can't stop something I didn't start," Jack said as he clenched his fist, "Do you people think I start every blizzard? I don't, okay? Sometimes it's just Mother Nature!"

"It's not Mother Nature!" Bunny exclaimed, "It's you!"

"I didn't do it!" Jack said getting all up in Bunny's face, "You wanna take this outside, Bunny!"

"You're a real son of a-" Bunny started but was interrupted.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Sandman pounded on the table with a stick.

"What, Sandy?!" Bunny demanded.

Sandy made an arrow and pointed to the window.

"You want us to go to Europe and see?" North asked, surprised.

"Yeah, let's go," Jack said, "I'll show you that I didn't do anything."

"Crikey!" Bunny said, "Why? We already know it's him."

"Jack should be granted the opportunity to prove it wasn't him," North said.

"Thank you!" Jack said.

"You're just buying time now you little -" But Bunny was once again interrupted by Sandy banging on the table.

"What, Sandy, what?!" Bunny asked irritated.

Sandy pointed to the window again.

"Oh," North said, finally understanding what Sandy had been trying to say. "Man in Moon."

Though it was day, moonlight came into the room and shapes formed in the air, like the moon was a projector.

"What's going on?" Jack asked but the others hushed him.

An image of the globe was formed and then under it a bunch of random numbers appeared.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bunny asked.

"Coordinates," North said, "Manny must want us to go there. Get what weapons you have and everyone get in the sleigh."

"Tunnels will be faster, mate," Bunny said.

"Does your tunnels have GPS? No. We go in sleigh."

Jack grabbed his staff. Hopefully whatever they found would help settle the blame. They all got in the sleigh and North punched in the coordinates.

"Looks like Norway," he said.

"Oh great," Bunny said, "It's gonna be freezing."

"Hold on!" North said and they were off.

They landed in a small clearing.

"This is it," North said, "But there's nothing here."

"We see that, big guy," Jack said.

Suddenly, the winds picked up and the already cold clearing became even more cold.

"Jack!" Bunny yelled.

"I'm not doing this!" Jack yelled, looking around in bewilderment.

A eerily familiar laugh filled everyone's ears.

"Pitch," North said.

"Correct," said a shadowy figure as he came into view.

"Pitch," Bunny growled, throwing his boomerangs.

Pitch held out a hand and black sand blocked the boomerangs course.

"I have to say," Pitch said, looking up at the moon, "I wasn't sure if you could do it, old friend."

"What's going on…?" Tooth asked.

Black sand swirled around the guardians' feet. It locked around their ankles before they could get away.

"He's abandoned you!" Pitch yelled at the guardians, "You're precious Man in the Moon knowingly led you into my trap!"

"What? No!" North said, struggling to get himself free without much success.

Jack tried to fight off the sand with his ice but he wasn't even slowing it down. The sand hardened into stone shackles around his feet and then his arms. Bunny, Tooth, and North were trapped too. Only Sandy was left standing and he fought off the sand with his own.

"Sandy, run! Come back for us!" Jack yelled. He couldn't stand to watch his friend die again.

But Sandy didn't try to run. He kept fighting.

Pitch smiled at Sandy's resilience and then chanted something under his breath. Black sand rose up from behind Sandy and grabbed him.

"Sandy!" Jack yelled, pulling at his own chains.

The black sand crawled up Sandy and hardened, turning Sandy into stone.

"No!" Jack yelled. But there was nothing he could do.

"Pitch!" North yelled in anger as the statue of Sandy hit the ground with a thump.

"No… Sandy," Tooth whispered.

Pitch laughed at the guardians.

"Oh you silly guardians," he said, "You put so much of your faith in the Man in the Moon and he gave you up."

"It isn't true," Bunny said.

"But," Pitch said, "It is. Was it not him that gave you these coordinates? Was it not him that led you here? Straight into my trap!"

"Shut up, Pitch!" Bunny yelled struggling against his chains.

"All I had to do," Pitch said, "Was kidnap the right person. Someone the Man in the Moon favored over his precious guardians. And he handed you over for her immediately."

"Who?!" Jack demanded.

Pitch just smiled at him. "You could've been on my side, Jack."

The nightmare horses bit the guardians chains for grip and dragged them through a secret entrance underground.

Queen Elsa ran from Pitch and his nightmares as fast as she could through the woods as the guardians fought him.

By the time she reached the small, nearby town half an hour had passed and running through the thorny woods left her icy-blue dress in sheds. Elsa gasped for breath, leaning against a tree, looking up at the moon.

In 1841, only 2 years into her time as queen, Pitch had kidnapped Elsa in the night. At the time Elsa was full of love for her sister and kingdom and she turned out to be stronger than the king of nightmares. Unable to kill her, Pitch used old magic to turn her into a statue. Three weeks ago today, 174 years after Elsa's capture, Arendelle was no more and Elsa's friends and family were long dead. Pitch freed the weak Elsa again, locked her up and used her as a bargaining chip against the Man in the Moon.

Elsa fell into a fit of uncontrollable sobs. She hadn't even known that she was adopted until Pitch told her that the Man in the Moon was her real father. She hadn't known that Anna wasn't really her sister… And now Anna would never know. Because Anna was long dead.

When Elsa "woke up" to find everyone she ever loved or cared about dead, she caused uncontrollable blizzards and storms all across Europe

An hour later, when Elsa had no more tears to spend she got up. Her crying fit had caused a blizzard but it was calming down a little now. She had a plan. The Man in the Moon had sent her visions when she slept as Pitch's captive. He told her what to do once she was freed.

She tried to take things one step at a time to keep herself from falling apart.

Step one, clothes. She outstretched her arms and created a new outfit for herself out of ice. It was very different from her signature dress. White pants that clung to her skin and then became lacey patterns on her skin as it went past her calf. A pale blue long-sleeve shirt that became lacey patterns as it passed her elbows and it went down halfway to her knees. Black gloves. And lastly a short cream-colored cape.

Step two, hair. Elsa combed through her ratty hair with her fingers and pulled it out of her face and into a sloppy bun.

Step three, rescue her father's comrades. She took a deep breath to settle herself. She had a mental conversation with herself, trying to convince herself to be brave, and she went back into the forest.

Jack and the others were chained to walls in an underground dungeon.

"How do we get out of here?" Bunny asked.

Jack shrugged and tears formed in his eyes as he looked at Sandy's statue in the corner. He wished the chains were long enough so he could've wiped the wetness from his eyes before the others could see.

"Jack," Tooth said gently, "Could you freeze the chains?"

"I could," Jack said, "If they hadn't taken away my staff."

"I can't believe Man in Moon would do something like this," North said.

"He might not have," Jack said, "You know how Pitch is. He twists the truth so it's in the worst light."

"But Manny did summon us here," North said, "He agreed to whatever bargain Pitch proposed."

"It musta been someone really important," Tooth said.

"It better be," Bunny said.

Hours passed. The dungeons were cold and dark. The only light came from a torch in the corner of the room. Tooth, Bunny, and North shivered. Everyone stared at Sandy. Tears were shed. None of them were certain if Sandy was dead or not or if he could be saved.

"Why is he keeping us here?" Tooth asked, "Why not just kill us?"

"Maybe he isn't strong enough yet," Bunny said, "He needs a certain amount of fear present in the world to kill an immortal."

"Maybe," Tooth said.

And then the dungeon door opened slightly. A shadowy figure came into the room.

"Pitch?" Bunny asked.

A girl in a cream-colored cloak came halfway into the torchlight. A big hood was pulled over her face, hiding her eyes.

"Who are you? A servant of Pitch?" Bunny asked.

She didn't say a word.

"Hello? Are you deaf?" Bunny asked.

The girl pulled out Jack's staff from behind her back.

"That's mine," Jack said stupidly.

She stretched out the staff and poked Jack's chains. Ice formed over the chains and expanded breaking through the chains like it were butter.

"You have ice powers like me?" Jack said, surprised.

The girl nodded mutely.

"So you're rescuing us?" Jack asked.

She nodded and started to free the others.

"I can do that for you," Jack said, watching her.

She ignored him and finished freeing the guardians then handed Jack his staff. The guardians thanked her.

She pointed to North and then pointed to Sandy's statue. North got her meaning and picked up Sandy.

"Are you mute?" Tooth asked the girls gently.

She didn't answer. Instead she led the group to the door and she put a thin gloved finger to her lips, signalling for silence. She led them out.

North's swords and Bunny's boomerangs were just outside the door. They grabbed them and everyone held their weapons at the ready. The girl created a long, razor sharp icicle for each hand and held them like swords.

"No guards?" North asked.

She didn't answer. She just raised another finger to quiet him.

They creeped out of Pitch's hideout without running into any nightmares. Once they were outside everyone let out a breath of relief. But they weren't in the clear yet.

The mysterious girl motioned for them to follow her and they traveled swiftly through the woods.

"Where are we going?" Jack asked her once he figured they were far enough away from the entrance.

She pointed north toward the giant North mountain.

"The mountain?" Tooth asked, "How? Why?"

She answered with action. She ungloved her hands and rose a giant block of ice from nothing. She shaped it into a frost-covered sleigh with several rows of seats complete with two horses made of ice.

"Whoa," Tooth said.

"Can you do that?" Bunny asked Jack.

"No," Jack said curtly, still a bit angry with Bunny.

The girl touched the sleigh and the rough surface of the ice smoothed out so it was like marble. She then touched the ice horses and the ice sculptures came to life. They snorted and huffed. She climbed into the front seat of the sleigh.

The guardians exchanged glances and then followed suit. North looked relieved to set down Sandy's heavy statue.

"Who are you?" Jack asked the girl.

She didn't answer.

"Fine, don't tell me."

And the ice horses pulled the group toward the North mountain.

A couple hours into the ride Elsa could hear Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny shivering and their teeth chattering so she decided they'd gone far enough.

She stopped the horses and got out of the sleigh.

The boy with the questions, Jack Frost, asked, "Why have we stopped here?"

It was a valid question. They were in the middle of nowhere in a small clearing a few hundred feet up.

Elsa didn't answer. She couldn't quite trust herself to speak. She thought that if she started answering questions she'd fall apart and start bawling.

Instead she signalled for them to wait and then walked out to the middle of the clearing alone. She took a deep breath of the cold mountain air and started to create a castle.

It wasn't as elaborate as the last one or as beautiful. It was simple and quick. She made one big room and then a second floor with enough rooms for all the guardians and then a third floor for herself.

"Um... how'd you do that?" Jack asked with wide eyes.

"Can you do that?" Tooth asked Jack.

"No," Jack said.

Elsa opened the doors with a wave of her hand and went in expecting the others to follow. They did.

"Wow!" Tooth said, looking around the giant room, "This is amazing!"

"That's an understatement," Bunny said, "Who are you?" he asked Elsa.

Elsa tensed. She didn't want to tell them. She trusted them, yes, but she was still hesitant. What if they were angry that the Man in the Moon gave them up for her?

She turned to face them and put up her hood.

Jack stared at the girl. She had pale blonde hair pulled back into a messy bun and stunning light blue eyes. She was so beautiful. Her eyes would've been gorgeous were they not as dead and defeated. So much sadness was trapped in her liquid blue eyes that it nearly ruined her pretty face.

She still didn't speak. The guardians stared at her, expecting her to do something.

"What's your name?" Jack asked her.

She didn't answer.

"What do we call you?" Jack asked again.

Finally she spoke. Her voice was soft and musical. "My name isn't important. You can call me whatever you like."

"So you can speak," Jack said.

She nodded.

"Why are you helping us?" Tooth asked.

"Because my father told me to," she said, "Put Sandman on the table."

"What table-" North started but the girl waved a hand and a table was created in the center of the room along with five chairs. Jack stared in amazement. He's never been able to do that.

The girl went to Jack and put a hand on his staff. Jack watched her questioningly and she pointed his staff at Sandy.

"What are we doing?" Jack asked.

She poked Sandy's statue. Frost spread over Sandy, glowing electric blue. Then the stone crumbled into nothing, leaving Sandy in all his former glory.

Sandy took a sharp breath as he was released and Tooth jumped up on the table to catch him as he fell over.

"Sandy? You okay?" North asked.

Sandy got up shakily, nodding. He eyes rested on the girl. His face lit up like it was Christmas morning.

Symbols appeared over Sandy's head. First the moon and then a light blue girl.

The girl nodded as if she understood.

This appeared to delight Sandy. He clapped his hands and walked over to the girl and touched her face then grinned and took a seat at the table.

"Wait, Sandy, you know her?" North asked.

He shook his head and then two words appeared over his head.

Of her.

"Who is she?" Bunny asked, "She won't tell us."

The Ice Queen of Arendelle, Sandy answered.

"Arendelle?" Jack asked, "What's that?"

"An old kingdom that used to be where Norway is," Tooth said, "It was conquered many years ago."

"There are rooms for you on the second floor. You can't leave tonight. Pitch will have his nightmares patrolling the skies," the girl said, turning her back on the guardians and going upstairs.

"Wait!" Jack said, chasing after her, "What do you want us to call you?"

She just stared at him mutely.

"Come on," Jack tried for a smile, "If you don't tell me, I'm gonna have to make one up for you and you aren't gonna like it."

She still didn't say anything. She didn't even look at him. Jack was starting to understand that this girl must have serious problems so he tried to make her smile.

"Edna?" he guessed, going for the worst, most old lady-like names he could think of, "Mildred? Roberta?"

"Elsa," she said softly, her voice full of sorrow, "My name was Elsa."

"Was?" Jack asked but she didn't clarify. She turned around and went slowly up the ice staircase.

Jack grabbed her hand to stop her. She jumped in surprise and yanked her hand back, eye wide. Jack noted the thin layer of ice growing over her gloves.

"Why are you helping us?" he asked.

"Because my father told me to," Elsa said.

"Your father?"

"You call him the Man in the Moon," she said.

"You are daughter of Manny?" North asked.

"Do you know why he gave us up?" Bunny asked, crossing his arms.

"He never gave you up," Elsa said, "He just made Pitch think he did. Pitch had me prisoner and told my father that he wouldn't let me go until he delivered you all. The Man in the Moon would never had just left you. He sent me to save you after I was released."

Elsa turned around again and this time Jack didn't stop her.