So this is the sequel/continuation of my previous Jelsa fanfiction: A Portrait's World Apart
If you haven't read it yet, I recommend you do so or else you will be seriously confused. The only reason for the switch was because the previous title had essentially lost its relevant meaning as the story developed.
Footfalls could be heard down the halls of the rank prison, they were heavy, scraping against the oppressive granite with a loud shuffle. The tenant down the very end of the hall knew this because the sound of bare feet on the floors was substantially different from one with shoes on, he has known this for the past seven years he has been stuck rotting in this hellhole.
The steps became louder and echoed more prominently, and realized they were heading in his direction. He looked up from where he sat and gazed upon a familiar face he hadn't seen in many, many years. He had neatly groomed black hair with a pair of round spectacles in front of his soft, hazel eyes.
"Klaus?"
"Hello, Hans, it's been ages, hasn't it?"
Hans stood up from his stone bench and walked towards his older brother, "Why are you here, Klaus?"
"It's... it's complicated, Hans. I'll tell you all about it in a little while, right now, I'm here to release you."
Hans raised a brow, "What's this all about, Klaus? Are you trying to make a criminal of yourself by freeing me?"
Klaus chuckled, "Oh I only wish, I actually have a royal decree here sanctioning your release."
Hans was even more confused, "Who would want me, a regicidal criminal, set free?"
Klaus was shifting through the assorted ring of keys while he replied, "Apparently, Albrecht does."
"Albrecht? What does that toad stand to gain from releasing me?"
Klaus sighed, "You'll find out once we return to his chateau."
(Another world)
One night, the Guardians were about their business in the world.
Sandy was in Rome handling the nighttime business of dreaming.
Tooth was directing her fairies to assorted thousand places throughout the Earth to find teeth under pillows.
And good ol' North and Bunny were about getting ready for their respective time of the year to bring hope and wonder that year.
But not all was right in the world that day, especially on a day like this.
There was Fire in the Sky
Sandy entered a little flat to check on one little guy who was having a little bit of a bad dream and make it all better. The swirling mass of Dreamsand was about to shift to a haze of Nightmare Dust, but Sandy was there to make sure it went better.
He smiled at his work and was about to depart when he saw sparking embers in the fireplace run wild for some strange reason. He thought nothing of it as he returned to his floating golden cloud and resumed threading his Dreamsand through the sky.
The strange flickering flames began to dance a bit more intensely, and without another warning, an errant spark popped out and fluttered, seemingly in a harmless fashion, before it touched the strand of Dreamsand; the immense heat turning the Sand into glass and trailed to Sandman. It's heated touch tracing through towards Sandy's cloud; Sandy only just noticed when the glass was nearly upon him.
He jumped off at the last minute as he watched his precious Sand consumed by the strange glass. His eyes widened when a surge of glowing, fiery red veins followed after the glass and reached the petrified cloud, exploding with a sudden burst of noise and heat, flinging shards of glass all around. Sandman, as the oldest of the Guardians, had seen many things in his life, but to watch as the strange fire consumed his Dreamsand and shattered it like that, now that was something else.
Of course it could not compare to the sudden shine of moonlight that came down upon him – the Man on the Moon needed the Guardians, and for the first time in forever, it was HE who gave the signal for them to assemble.
(The Easter Warren)
Millions of dozens of eggs marched along the grassy lanes and across flowers spitting multicolored mist through them, decorating them in fancy colors and glittering shades.
Bunnymund was sitting on a tall mound of stone adjusting and repainting one little egg that looked a little off around the bottom, he took his little painting brush and swabbed something a bit more fancy for the kids to have.
Without warning a sudden rumble reverberated in his domain, all the eggs stopped in their tracks and Bunny looked around, puzzled. Then, the rumble returned, and another sound, kind of like creaking, was suddenly audible, "Somethin' ain't right here."
Bunnymund raced through his Warren, trying to discover the source of the rumbling noise, finally coming to a clearing around the side where he saw a small crack forming on the ground, an eerie, fiery glow and thick red smoke puffing from it.
"What in the-" Bunnymund tread closer to the mysterious fissure. The crack began to expand, and the rumbling occurred again, followed this time by sparks of light and lashing tongues of flame coming from the opening. Suddenly, a large dark blob emerged and started bounding around the Warren, smashing various Easter eggs as they scrambled to get away.
"Hey, Hey! What are you doing!?" Bunny bounced along the large mounds of rock after the bounding blob. Once he had a clear shot, he tossed one of his trusty boomerangs at the invader, "Now that was a hit!"
The blob rolled and tumbled away to a corner out of Bunnymund's sight before he could go after it. He looked around and frowned at the sight before him, although it didn't do too much damage, it was enough to set him back for a while.
As he pondered the identity of the mystery attacker, he was suddenly blinded by a soft light that beamed from above. Looking up at the sky above his Warren, he saw the Moon, glimmering an unsettled shimmer that betrayed a distant worry.
The Man on the Moon, unsettled? Manny always had faith in the Guardians to save the world and the children, and as such there was never any reason for HIM of all people to seem panicked. The only reason he would beckon the Guardians directly and with such alarm was if there were a threat to the world that was even bigger than Pitch himself, and there aren't many threats in the world Bunny knew of more than Pitch.
Tapping his large rabbit's foot, he formed a tunnel beneath his domain and traveled to the Guardians' rendezvous point – North's workshop.
(Toothiana)
Thousands of buzzing little tooth fairies were fluttering about in the Tooth Palace, putting their hard-earned finds into golden cylinders as they did so, to preserve the memories of the children as they grew older and needed to recall some pivotal moment of their lives that was needed when it was needed.
But surprisingly, for the first time in centuries, Toothiana herself was not around directing the traffic of her little ones. No, ever since the debacle with Pitch a year ago Tooth realized she needed to go out and experience what it was like to be about the field again, oh the memories of those days.
Tooth checked on a little girl in France who tucked her little front-left tooth under her pillow, hoping for a little something in return. As always, the Tooth Fairy was there, grinning happily for the little girl before placing a roll of euro as a reward.
"Oh what a precious little central incisor she has. Still has a bit of blood on it," then she recalled the incident with Sophie, "Um... yeah, hehe, better clean this one up when I get back."
Once outside, Tooth looked at the little pouch she had collected for herself that night. Oh how she loved being back in the field, it brought back fond memories.
"Now, let's see, I know there's one more somewhere down at Calais, and then that's it for-"
Her train of thought was suddenly disrupted when she heard a sinister howling in the wind. The sound made a tingle run up her spine, and she looked about cautiously, her little minions fluttering nearby defensively.
She flew carefully down the empty streets, taking a deep breath and moving cautiously. A slight huff in the air, and she whirled around and saw a shadow whirling by a corner store, "All right, I see you right there, come out right now!"
The shadow emerged and allowed itself to be more clearly visible, Tooth looked both alarmed and puzzled at the strange creature – a wolf made of pure darkness and fire flickering from his mouth and eyes.
"Who... what are you?"
The hellish wolf lunged towards her in reply, growling angrily as he did.
Tooth bolted up into the air with her mini fairies to evade his attack, taking the dark wolf and throwing him towards a nearby food stand, smashing the items inside to bits.
"Whoever owns that stand isn't going to like that in the morning."
The wolf decided it wouldn't have none of her sass, however, and bolted out of the broken stand and lunged towards Tooth, she evaded in the nick of time, but Baby Tooth wasn't nearly as lucky and was pinned under the wolf's paw, shrieking for help.
"Baby Tooth!"
Baby Tooth looked up in terror, watching as the creature opened his maw, a burning flame emanating from its mouth.
Toothiana, acting on instinct, dive-bombed and penetrated the wolf's hide with her hidden blade, eliciting a howl and forcing the wolf away from Baby Tooth. The creature's wound was especially deep and bled molten hot magma. The creature whimpered before morphing into a black and fiery red slime and slinked its way back into a little crevice, where the shadow of the little opening made for a convenient getaway.
"Baby Tooth! Are you all right? Are you hurt?"
The little fairy shook her head and smiled weakly, assuring Toothiana that she was all right. Once everything died down, she resumed her task of retrieving the world's teeth, but not without the thought of the mysterious wolf cloaked in hellfire still reeling in her mind.
What was that thing? Why did it try to attack her and her fairies? So many questions and no real way to answer them.
A strong light shone from the full moon above, a call had been sounded to the Guardians once more, only this time, Toothiana noted, it was the Man in the Moon who sounded the call, rather than North with his bright, multi-colored lights in the sky.
Perhaps he could give her the answers to the questions that plagued her that night?
(North's Workshop)
North chewed on a little chocolate chip cookie while marching about the workshop, examining various toys which his yetis were busy assembling.
His face turned to one who was painting assorted toy rockets red, he took a look at one completed product, before setting it back down, gazing down at the yeti with a smug grin, "Let's try something different this year, paint them all green."
The yeti yelped in surprise, throwing his arms up and groaning in exasperation, swearing to head home for the Himalayas later that month.
North opened the door to his office and went over the Naughty and Nice list again, making sure that the appropriate present got to the right household (and not a misplaced lump of coal).
He was sipping up some eggnog when the entire workshop shook at some tremendous force that rocked the building to its foundation.
"What is going on!?" North exclaimed, scrambling out of his office and looking around, his eyes furrowing in irritation. The elves hastily began pointing towards his massive globe, which began showing strange reddish streaks along the surface.
North, as a Guardian, had seen many things, like Indians playing Jenga with heavy bricks on their heads, or humans taking cosmetic surgeries to turn into lizards, or American patriotic super-soldiers wearing the Red-White-and-Blue as a uniform and being frozen in ice.
(I think you see what I did there)
But this one was particular for one reason: It was happening in his workshop.
Suddenly, an otherworldly howl, like that of a wolf, but distorted and hollow, echoed through his shop, what followed was a sudden flood of pure dark matter rushing in from the black crevices of the shop. North found himself nearly swept off his boots as the tidal wave of blackness overwhelmed his shop. The Yetis and Elves began prancing about like mad, as though the end of the world was upon them, but in a situation like that, no one would think otherwise.
When the Darkness dissipated, retreating back into the tiny cracks and crevices, the whole shop was in total chaos – Everywhere toys, furniture and pieces of the floorboards were torn up and, perhaps more pressing, the fire alarms blared as smoke and hot flame engulfed the toys and the shop. Everywhere the Yetis and Elves tried to fight the blaze that threatened to eat their home.
One troop of Elves pulled out a huge wheeled tank of water with hoses about it and they got to work dousing the flames.
North descended to the bottom of the shop, looking at the damage that had just occurred, feeling his heart sink. He looked around and found a little button-eyed rag doll on the ground, singed but for the most part intact. North smiled, at least he could still salvage what he had left before Christmas.
He was about to stand back up when he noticed an odd shape on the floor, he shifted to come closer, and saw that it looked highly unusual for a burn mark – It was a paw print, a wolf's paw print...
(the Frozen-verse)
It had been so long since Hans felt the feeling of the sea breeze on his face, the only cold thing he felt for years is the frigid rock wall of his cell... and the memory of the Arendelle sisters giving him the Antarctic shoulder (and from Anna, a nearly broken nose).
His brother Klaus was at the helm, directing the ship they were on towards an ominous fortress just a bit off the distance. He had told Hans that Albrecht had been busy in the seven years since their youngest brother's imprisonment. Busy with what, exactly, Klaus was not at liberty to say.
Once their lugger made its way and was lashed firmly to the side of the pier, Klaus and Hans both marched down the gangplank and into the walled fortress. As they did, Hans looked out from the walkway down to the courtyard and saw various soldiers doing drill, some of them looked like professional fighting men, steadfast and grim-faced, decked in fancy new soldiering uniforms, carrying menacing halberds and twirling them in a proud display of their training.
To the side were rugged, unkempt ruffians; mercenaries, Hans thought, they were more interested playing games of chance and drinking liquor than in training drill with the professionals. Which begged the question – what was Albrecht up to? It looked as though he was preparing for war.
(Arendelle)
Elsa was busy trying to write a proper message for Jack, secretly pulling out the Courting Seal of Arendelle, an artifact that hasn't seen use since their father.
So far, none of the letters she had were "good enough" as she put it to give to Jack, and Elsa wanted to maintain a good impression with him, but instead, she developed a headache trying to write the perfect prose.
She laid down against her bed and covered her vision with her arms, trying to go over what she had written so far. Writing letters for your significant other was harder than she thought, so she supposed a nap would be in order and then maybe she would finally find the inspiration she needed. Little did she know there was a strange bird, a raven, looking at her through the window.
At first, there was darkness, and then there was moisture. Elsa awoke with a start when she suddenly found herself in the middle of what appeared to be some kind of waist-high marsh. Puzzled, Elsa pointed her palms to the murky water, but no ice or frost emerged, leaving her no choice but to wade to wherever she could find a dry place.
After what seemed like an hour, Elsa reached a small island in the middle of the strange, alien bog around her.
"Ugh... what a dreary place," She wrung her soaked dress and took a look around, "How did I get here? I just started taking a nap when- Ah!" A raven swooped down and nearly collided with Elsa without warning. The ominous bird perched atop a a dead, sickly tree which grew in minutes from the earth on the patch of dry soil.
The raven cawed menacingly, before it turned into a mass of dark and reformed into the shape of what appeared to be a a young, pale girl, with jet-black hair covering a half of her face, looking back down at Elsa with a look of unfiltered sorrow in her eerie, golden eyes.
Elsa stared back, concern and caution evident on her own face, not knowing what to make of the strange child who suspiciously appeared before her. The little girl hovered down to the ground, an aura of gloom permeating the air around her.
"Who... who are you?" Elsa finally built up the nerve to ask.
"Sad..."
"What?"
"So sad... you don't know, do you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Darkness... a Tide of Darkness will befall you, it shall nest in your heart and cloud your sight, and you will not know it..."
Elsa was genuinely confused"I... I don't understand."
The black-haired girl finally lifted her head to face her, her voice became unexpectedly stern when she spoke, "The only thing you need to understand, Elsa of Arendelle, is that there will come a creature who will poison you with Hate, searing it into your soul and from there compel you to hurt those you love and care for."
Elsa was starting to get angry, incensed that this whelp imply her as some selfish bully.
"Look, little girl, I don't know why you've brought me here. But I will not be talked down by you, especially over matters of the safety of the ones I love and care for."
The little girl, unshaken by Elsa's response, continued, "The Darkness has claimed many things, Elsa, and I am always here to see what new sad souls come crying to this place, to my River of Tears. I come to you only because of one thing - to save someone of the heartbreak you shall cause."
Elsa scowled, "I would never dream of hurting those who I love, girl, why will you not understand?!"
"You will understand, Elsa, and if you do not heed my words, then you have already lost."
Elsa awoke from her bed with a start, her breathing heavy. She stood up and walked towards the wash basin, splashing her face and keeping it moist for several minutes, trying to gather her thoughts.
"Just calm down, Elsa, it was just a dream, just a-" when she looked down the sight that greeted her chilled her spine: patches of muck from the dream-marsh was awash over the lower half of her dress.
(Albrecht's chateau)
Hans and Klaus paced down carpeted hallways lined by old suits of armor standing in their quiet vigil, behind them were masterpiece portraits of famous generals leading the charge against impossible odds or famous, pivotal battles from history. Albrecht was a very militant individual, he even believed himself the reincarnation of some of history's greatest military geniuses; Hans never quite understood his brother's delusions.
They approached a pair of huge mahogany doors with polished brass inlays. They were flung wide open, and there standing by a wargame table with miniature pieces on it was Albrecht.
Hans was already a shrewd and conniving backstabber, but it goes without saying that it "runs in the blood."
Hans wasn't always a treacherous sycophant, he learned it all from his older brother – Albrecht.
The Kingdom of the Southern Isles, as it were, would have simply been called the Kingdom of the South Isle were it not for its thirteen princes. They were an ambitious lot, eager to convert their tiny plot of earth on the sea into something more, but they had differing opinions of how to go about it – Some, such as Klaus, sought peaceful unification with neighboring states through alliances and trade agreements; while others used sneakier, subversive means of stealing land that should, by all accounts, not belong to them; Albrecht was one of them, and although he was not the eldest, and certainly did not hold the most authority amongst his siblings, he was the most cunning, creative, and ruthless of them all – his infamy was a closely guarded secret, but the full extent of the terrible things he has done is unknown even amongst his most trusted brothers and comrades.
Albrecht was like an older version of Hans – auburn hair and sideburns that framed his face, but with wrinkles lining parts of his forehead, and a goatee stretching from the bottom of his lip to the tip of his chin.
He turned around to face his younger brother, "I see the runt of the litter has returned from his little hole in the ground." He plucked a ripe pear from a nearby basket and dug his teeth into it.
Albrecht's words stung Hans's already wounded pride, "You mean the one you and the others threw me into? I didn't know princes could dig holes as good as dogs." Hans's words dripped with acidic sarcasm.
The elder sibling snickered, unimpressed by his little brother's attempt at a jab, "I would have dug something far deeper than what they had in mind, dear Hans, but then I wouldn't have been able to retrieve you now like I have."
Hans remembered his brothers deciding his ultimate fate following the Arendelle debacle; one half, the more sensible, reasonable group of the siblings, opted for a lifetime behind bars, while the other half, Albrecht's "personal band" if you will, demanded he be hanged for his stupidity in endangering their diplomatic relations with Arendelle.
"Albrecht, why did you choose to keep me alive?" Hans remembered the day he faced his brothers in court, they all expected it to be a stalemate with both halves voting in equal leanings to their decisions, and everyone was surprised, especially Hans himself, about Albrecht's vote to have him spared.
"Because, little brother..." Albrecht walked up to the window, watching as the sun set into the horizon, "...I believe you can help me in this little excursion I'm undertaking."
Hans raised his brows, "What excursion?"
Albrecht cleared his throat, "You see, Hans, I would have been happy, thrilled even, to see your head decorating the outer wall of my chateau. But after I received the full report of what happened to you from our partners in Weselton, I became intrigued by Elsa, the legendary 'Snow Queen' of Arendelle."
He took another bite of his pear, "So when the time came to decide your fate, I knew the information you could spare me of what occurred that fateful day could be useful."
"Useful for what?"
He turned to Hans, a glint of treachery on his eye, "Why, for when I attack Arendelle."
Hans felt his mouth drop, surely his brother must be completely insane to suggest something as audacious as an invasion of Arendelle?
"Are you mad, Albrecht? No one in the Southern Isles would agree to something as brazen as an assault on another kingdom, our brothers could have you thrown in prison for treason!" He spoke not out of concern for his brother, but simple common sense over his intentions.
Albrecht smirked, "Why do you think I've spent seven years building my strength up in secret?"
"What do you mean?" Then it dawned on Hans, Albrecht was not going to invade Arendelle in an official capacity, and suddenly the odd assortment of soldiers out in the rest of the chateau made sense, "...then, the soldiers outside..."
"Privateers, pirates, mercenaries, bandits, reavers... lowlifes of every stripe flocked under my banner, I paid for and trained them to become my personal army, independent of our kingdom's official standing military, all while, for the past seven years, I waited in silence, even willing to lay low of my usual treachery that our siblings thought I had turned over a new leaf."
"Brother, what are you trying to accomplish? Arendelle is not even that important strategically, at best it's little more than a crossroad for trade, but it's still a backwater."
"Are you familiar with the legend of Disa, Hans?"
He was familiar, yes, but that was just a fairy tale, a myth of the far north from a pagan era that bears no bearing in this age, "Disa is just a myth, Albrecht. You can't possibly believe..."
"Hans..." he cut in, "You witnessed it yourself. You saw, firsthand, a queen with power over frost and snow blanket an entire kingdom and nearly choked the life from it in a flash," he said with a snap of his fingers, "The only time such an event occurred before then was when Disa destroyed hers in her madness. I intend to uncover the source of Elsa's winter powers, and when I do, we shall march over all the corners of the Earth and make them bow before us!"
Hans looked up, the fires of ambition burning in his brother's eyes as he returned to the window.
"What do you say, brother? Will you join me on my expedition? After all, do you not have a score to settle with a pair of Arendelle royals who humiliated you so?"
Hans did not forget that day, the day he came close to claiming another piece of territory for the Southern Isles, and it was as the Shadow spoke to him in his cell: He still desired power, but deep in his heart, his hatred burned deep, deep enough that he almost felt as though Elsa's frosts would never touch him.
With nothing to lose, he nodded to Albrecht, who smiled maliciously.
And in the corner, shrinking like the wallflower he was between his two ambitious brothers, was Klaus, pondering to himself what he and, more importantly, his brother Hans were getting themselves into.
Two souls, one burning with hate and another with malice, looked north towards a small kingdom who had no idea of a tide of darkness ready to flood it.
And guiding their hands to this terrible outcome was a Shadow, fire flickering from his canine snout, a tingle of excitement overcoming his being. This Shadow loomed over two worlds: the Guardians were already in distress over a strange presence skulking in the dark corners of their home turf, and unbeknownst to the people of Arendelle, their beloved kingdom, sculpted of ice woven of the love of their queen, would soon feel the Shadow's flames burn it all to the ground.