Hey everyone! So, kramer53 proposed a challenge for someone to write the third book in her series, Snow King for a Snow Queen. She just wasn't in the zone to keep writing, but since she wanted to read it, I took her up on her offer. She's my beta (*le gasp* I actually have a beta for my story X-P), and she's making sure I keep her characters the way she intended them. I hope you enjoy the story! This story will make a lot more sense if you read the first two, since this takes place twenty years after the last chapter in Black Snow. Not entirely mandatory, but might help.
Chapter 1: Being Forgotten
A month passed, and Jack and Nicole still haven't truly gotten over Elsa's death. Whatever they looked at reminded them of her. Jack resigned from being king because having an immortal king wasn't in everyone's wishes. In his place stood Anna and Kristoff until Nicole turned twenty-one.
The castle seemed empty and quiet those days, except for the occasional sobs coming from people's sleeping quarters. They were all in depression and everyone knew it. The only thing that could fill their hearts again was the frozen one that melted so long ago.
Months turned to years, and every day Jack visited the ice palace to see his wife. After her death, they decided the best place to bury the Snow Queen was the place where she was always happy, the place where she could escape her fears, where she met her husband, and ultimately, where she died too soon. They brought her to her room in the ice palace, where the entrance to her balcony was. Jack and Nicole used their magic to preserve Elsa's body, freezing it so it would never age or decay. They created a coffin of solid ice, with a bed of snow for her to lie on. The base of the coffin was decorated with a mixture of Elsa, Jack and Nicole's signature snowflakes. Elsa's were bigger, obviously, and much sharper and more delicate than the other two patterns. Jack's were gentle and fun, like him, and showed an inner strength and determination to survive and be seen. Nicole's were different from the others. Her snowflakes were sad, with sharp angles like her mother's, but less precision, like her father's.
They laid Elsa down in the coffin, and Jack left her with a blue rose made of glowing ice that would never freeze held in her hands, against her chest. He debated taking her ring, but decided to leave it. They had promised that they would be together forever when they married, and Jack decided that not even Death herself could force them to break that oath. Then they created a raised, rounded lid of clear ice so they could see her, and Jack decorated the bottom edge of the lid with delicate frost images to tell Elsa's story. The images started with when she was born, and depicted every defining moment in her life until the moment she died. He didn't show how she died in the images, not wanting his daughter to be blamed, so he just showed her lying in the coffin.
With the coffin completed, Nicole and Jack created four ice urns to match, and made sure they would never melt. They placed these urns at each corner, and Ember and Fyre filled them with an intense, icy blue flame that would burn as long as Elsa's body remained in the frozen coffin. Anna, Emily and Olaf brought beautiful flowers that reminded them of Elsa, and the Snow King and his daughter preserved them the same way they had preserved the body of the Snow Queen, so they would last forever. They placed these flowers around the edge of the lid, making sure they didn't cover Elsa's frosted story, and scattered the rest around the base, between the urns and Elsa's eternal bed. Jack cleared a spot next to his wife's head carefully, and created a chair of ice and snow where he could sit and visit with her. Together they spent several days mourning the loss of their beloved friend, sister, mother, and wife, but eventually they had to return to the castle in Arendelle. Jack couldn't bear to rule their people without Elsa, so he passed the crown to Anna and Kristoff, who would rule as regent until Nicole was old enough to handle the throne.
When Nicole turned nineteen, Ember, who was eighteen, finally proposed. Nicole accepted, and her eyes slowly began to sparkle again. To honor her mother, she walked down the aisle in the dress Elsa had married Jack in, and her father cried. He was happy for her daughter, and happy that she chose to wear her mother's snowy dress, but his heart swelled to the point of pain when he watched his grown-up daughter turn into her mother. The two were identical, with the only difference being the icy purple streak Nicole added to her hair a year after her mother died, which was her attempt at easing her father's pain. The young couple married outdoors under a full moon, and Nicole looked like a ray of pure moonlight during the ceremony. Ember had worn a fiery suit with an icy purple flower pinned to his tie, and Nicole added a flaming rose to her hair.
After the reception, when everyone was gone to bed, Jack snuck away to tell Elsa how the wedding went. He cried again despite himself, wishing more than anything that his wife had seen their daughter marry her childhood friend. He explained everything in minute detail, from how she looked exactly like Elsa to how beautiful she looked during their first dance as a married couple. The pair danced to a song about opening one's arms to let an old love back in, one that Anna sung. It was a beautiful waltz, but some of the lyrics made Jack cry harder than others. He sang the verse he cried over to his wife, needing to let his emotions out to her.
"Living without you, living alone, this empty house seems so cold. Wanting to hold you, wanting you near, how much I wanted you home," he sang to her, and his throat closed up when he was done. He wanted her back so badly, but years had passed, and the Man in the Moon still hadn't reincarnated her. She still lied in the coffin, and he still sat in his chair next to her.
Three years later, Nicole was finally old enough to claim the throne of Arendelle as queen, and as the day grew closer, she became more upset. She was scared that she could never live up to the examples set by her mother and her aunt, and there was nothing Ember could do to calm his wife. Jack brought her to her mother's ice palace the day before to visit her grave. When they got to Elsa's room, Jack cleared a place next to his chair so they could both sit. They sat together for what seemed like hours, father and daughter, watching over their Queen's body, before Nicole finally spoke.
"What if the people don't like me as queen? What if I hurt them too, like I hurt Simon and you, and mom? What if they fear me, or hate me, or the kingdom is attacked and I can't stop it because I'm not as good a ruler as mom and Anna were? What if I fail?" the young woman asked her father without giving him time to respond, and she barely whispered her last question, so Jack had to strain to hear her. When she took a shaky breath to calm down, he wrapped an arm around her petite frame.
"Nicole, everyone loves you. You're in control now. When you hurt Simon, it was because he tried to kill Ember. When you hurt mom and I, it was because Pitch was controlling you. But you're in control now, and you've never done anything to make anyone in the kingdom fear you, or hate you. If the kingdom is attacked, you and Ember will be amazing rulers and will be strong enough to stop it. You're fire and ice, after all. Two elements that according to the laws of nature should never get along or come into contact with one another, and yet you fell in love and are perfect for each other. And I swear to you, you will not fail. You are my daughter, and you are your mother's daughter, and you will be a beautiful, strong queen, just like she was, and I will be here to help you every step of the way. Guardian's honor," he swore to his daughter, and she finally smiled at him with tears in her eyes. She hugged him tightly, and he smiled and returned the hug.
"Can I tell you a secret?" he asked the soon-to-be queen, who nodded against his chest. "Your mother is watching over us from the beautiful place she's staying in now, and I know for a fact that she couldn't be prouder of how you've grown up. You're strong, you love your people, and you're more beautiful than anyone this kingdom has ever seen. Well, almost anyone, but you look exactly like her so you're on the same level of beauty as her." he told her with a smirk, teasing the twenty-one year old. He meant her mother, and Nicole knew it. She didn't take it personally, since she knew her mother would always be the most beautiful in her father's eyes, but she also knew that she had made him proud, and hope filled her heart as she considered that she had made her mother proud as well. They sat together in silence for a moment, and Nicole found herself softly singing a song her cousin Nora used to sing when they would get ready for parties. She called it Popular, and Nicole smiled when she started singing her favorite part, which just so happened to be the very end of the song.
"And though you protest, your disinterest, I know, clandestinely…you're gonna grin and bear it, your newfound popularity!" she sang to herself, and her father watched her proudly. They both knew that by popularity, she meant becoming Queen of Arendelle, and Jack knew deep inside him that his daughter would be an amazing ruler. He smiled as he thought of North, his best friend, and mentally imitated him. She'll be a great queen. I can feel it, in my belly! He chuckled softly, and with that, they bid goodbye to Elsa and left so Nicole could prepare for her big day.
Nicole became queen, with Ember as her king, and they were great rulers. Years passed, and the royal couple had children. Their two eldest, who happened to be twins, were the polar opposites of their parents, in that the son was opposite his father and the daughter was opposite her mother. Jacob, the first-born, had his mother's almost white hair, his grandfather's icy blue eyes, and ice powers, while Crystal, the younger twin by mere minutes, had her father's dark brown hair and fiery amber eyes, and her father's power to control fire. Three years later, they had another daughter. They named her Rose, for the rosy color in her cheeks, and she resembled neither parent and both parents. Her hair was white, like her mother's, with dark brown streaks, like her father's. Her eyes were different from what anyone had ever seen before. Her right eye was turquoise like Nicole's, with amber flecks sparkling like gold, and her left eye was fiery amber like Ember's, with turquoise flecks that glittered like diamonds. Her features resembled Elsa's more than anyone's, being sharp but still delicate and welcoming, and she had Nicole's smile. She was beautiful in a strange way, and everyone adored her. Rose's features drew a lot of attention to her, and her older sister Crystal's eyes drew her attention as well, mainly from prospective suitors, while Jacob's eyes won him the hearts of all the girls in the kingdom. Jack was there to watch and celebrate all their births with the rest of the kingdom.
When almost twenty years had passed since Elsa's death, Jack moved to the ice palace to be closer to her. He was close enough to Arendelle to help his daughter if she needed him, and still fulfilled his duties as a Guardian, but he always came back to be with Elsa. He spent his nights sitting next to her, sometimes excitedly telling her about his day, either informing her on how her grandchildren were growing up, telling her what mischief he got into with the elves and Baby Tooth, or telling her about the children he had fun with. Sometimes, he sat next to her in silence until he quietly told her how much he missed having her by his side, and sometimes he sang to her. He would sing every song he knew, and every song he knew she loved, and every song he loved having her sing to him. He sung her song, Let It Go, more often than he sung anything else. He always imagined how she would be wherever she is now, and he pictured her being happy and letting go of everything that held her down while she was alive. A year passed like this, and on the anniversary of her death, her family came to the ice palace to mourn, as they did every year. It had become a time to release their sadness and frustrations from the last year, and it always ended with them singing Let It Go and another song, similar to Elsa's in meaning. It was a song about spreading wings and learning to fly, but always remembering their family and their past. The song was called Breakaway, and it seemed to help everyone. At midnight, they all returned to the palace, and the gates—which closed for the anniversary of the death of the once isolated queen—reopened to let them and everyone else back in.
The day after the twentieth anniversary of Elsa's death, Jack had gone to visit the Guardians after seeing North's Guardian call. The jolly man welcomed them with milk and cookies, like always, and told him there was news. He said he could feel in his belly that something big was coming. He didn't know what it was, but it said it was a happy feeling in his belly this time, not like how it was when he felt Pitch growing stronger. He told them to keep an eye on the skies, and that when the Man in the Moon had news, he would flash the Northern Lights again to call them back.
Jack went home as quickly as he could, but still arrived at the palace late at night. It was a full moon, and Jack slowed to admire the dazzling ice palace his wife had made long ago, when she first became queen. He noticed it looked brighter than usual, but didn't see anything strange about that. He continued on to the palace, and made his way up to the ballroom. He didn't want to go in to sit with Elsa again just yet, and he stood staring out the huge windows at the sparkling snow that never left the North Mountain. He looked up at the full moon, about to ask Manny a question, when he heard a painfully familiar voice behind him, a voice that sounded scared and brave and confused all at once.
"Who are you?" the voice demanded, and Jack spun on his heels. Standing before him in a defensive stance that he only ever saw during battle was none other than Elsa. In his excitement, he rushed to hug her, but realized when her arms tensed and the air around her hands began to glow blue, that the love of his immortality, didn't remember him.
Poor Jack! Question: What would you do if you were him?