Awakened
Elsa dreamed of death.
She could tell that she was dreaming because she felt cold, unbearably so, and since the cold never bothered her in real life that means that she must be dreaming. But if she was dreaming, then why did she feel cold, or anything at all for that matter. Also she seemed to be standing upright, but she was unable to move at all: not an arm or a finger. She couldn't blink or even change where she was looking, though she could see out of the corner of her eye a slender arm that looked as though it were sculpted out of ice. At first she had thought that it had belonged to Anna, that something had happened to her and she had been turned to ice again, but then Elsa realized that the arm was actually her own.
Elsa knew that she was dreaming, but that didn't make what she was seeing any more pleasant, any less horrifying or heartbreaking, and though she'd like nothing more than to look away she would have found herself unable to do so even if she wasn't physically frozen in place like a statue. She saw her parents' ship as the wave overtook it, and even over the roar of the storm she heard the screams of everyone as they were swallowed by the sea. She saw Anna throw herself between Elsa and Hans's sword just as Elsa's power froze her solid, the blade shattering as it struck her rigid form. She witnessed as her ice stalactite failed to completely block Azula's lightning strike, the deflected bolt instead being drawn to Anna's upraised frying pan and killing her. She saw as Michael was struck by a Killing Curse when he knocked her out of its path. She witnessed as Marshmallow was consumed by Admiral Akainu's lava blast, then as the Mini-Marshmallows immolated themselves on Akainu's molten form in order to give her the chance to escape.
Stop! Stop this, please! Elsa silently pleaded, though she was unable to give voice to her despair. The next scene that laid itself before her was unusual in a number of ways, the first of which being that the previous ones were based on her memories, things that she herself had bore witness to, but she was sure that she'd never seen this event before. In fact, she was certain that she'd never been to this place before, though it was strangely familiar to her all the same. The other way it was unusual was that in the previous visions all she felt was cold, but here she could feel the warmth of the sun making her feel once again like a flesh and blood woman, albeit one imprisoned in a thick ice shell, even as it illuminated the scene before her. She saw a huge crowd of people gathered around her, murmuring to one another in a language she didn't understand and paying no heed to the ice sculpture of a girl in their midst. Their focus was on a raised wooden platform, upon which was a stained wooden block with metal restraints as well as a hooded man wielding a heavy metal axe (obviously an executioner).
When she was finally able to tear her focus away from this grim figure to notice the building (or rather, the palace) behind him, Elsa finally realized why this place was so familiar to her: This was the kingdom of Wistermere, the place Julian had shown her that he had come from, where he was trying to find his way back to. But why was she here now? As she was thinking this, a trio of figures made their way up onto the platform. The two in the back Elsa recognized as being in the armor the guards wore in this area, and while the young man in front was wearing no restraints Elsa could see she still had no doubt that he was their prisoner, the one being led to die with a look of grim acceptance on his face. Then, when she was able to focus features , she gasped in shock as she recognized who it was: it was Julian! Elsa was sure that she'd never witnessed this happening before, so why was she seeing it now? Just what was going on here!?
As he lowered his head onto the block, Julian seemed to finally notice her and he gave her a smile even as his eyes filled with sadness. The sadness clearly was meant for her, that she would have to witness this, while the smile showed that he was happy to see her all the same, that he was trying to tell her It's okay, this was my choice.
Well it's not okay with me, dammit! Elsa mentally raged back at him. Now she no longer cared whether this was a dream or not, whether it was real or some horrible fantasy: Elsa had to stop this at any cost! Straining as hard as she could, Elsa felt her muscles burn as she desperately struggled to break free of her frigid prison, which had been weakening and growing thin in the heat of this blaring sun, and she felt an urge to smile as she heard the shell begin to crack. However, even though the crowd around her gave no notice to her, it seemed as though Julian had seen what was happening, and surprisingly the smile vanished from his face even as the sadness remained in his eyes and even intensified. Clearly he did not feel that she should interfere, but Elsa did not care. She could not, would not let him die! She could not lose him too!
As the executioner gripped his axe tightly and slowly raised it high over his head, Elsa felt the ice covering the lower portion of her face fall away, exposing her jaw to the warmth of the sun. Taking a deep breath, Elsa desperately cried out, "Don't!"
And then the axe fell.
When Elsa opened her eyes, the first thing that she noticed was that she was in an unfamiliar room, lying in a bed that was comfortable but also unfamiliar. The stiff feeling she had during her dream was apparently caused by the fact that she was tucked so tightly into it the sheets themselves practically served as restraints, although Elsa was sure that she could work her way free of them now that she was awake. Also, her face, or specifically her forehead, still felt cold. Shifting her gaze up, she caught a glimpse of some sort of bulging fabric bag on her head, most likely some sort of icepack.
The next thing she noticed was that she could only see out of her left eye. Recalling at that moment the fight she had with the admiral who tried to capture herself and Anna along with Luffy's crew, how she just barely managed to avoid being hit directly by his lava blast but still got burned anyway, Elsa was afraid that she had been permanently blinded in that eye as a result. A second later, however, Elsa realized that there was some sort of gauzy fabric over that area of her face, firmly attached there at its edges by what felt to be strips of sticky….something.
Just as Elsa thought of working her arms free in order to peel off the stuff covering her eye so she could see if she was able to see out of it, however, she caught a movement out of the corner of her uncovered eye and turned her head to get a better look. There, sitting in a chair, was a young man around 12 or 13 years old. He was focused intently on the rather fancy-looking hardbound book in his lap, in which he appeared to be scribbling furiously with a pen of a design she had never seen before: made of a clear material with what appeared to be a reservoir of ink in its center.
As he seemed to reach the bottom of one page and began on the top of the opposite one, the boy happened to look up and noticed Elsa looking back at him. "You're awake," the boy stated as the pen dropped from his fingers, though it sounded more like a statement than a question, and he quickly stood and quickly yet carefully closed the book in his hands, setting it in the chair he was sitting in earlier as he hastily said, "I'll go get the others." The boy then ran out of the room as he called out in a loud, carrying voice, "Mom! Grandma! Anna! Elsa's awake!"
Elsa felt a moment of shock hearing the young man calling out Anna's name as if he knew her, the nightmare she just had rising up from the back of her consciousness and bothering her like a splinter just under her skin. Anxious to see if Anna really was here and truly all right, Elsa shrugged herself free of the constricting bedsheets and sat straight up, reaching her hand towards the fabric attached to her face.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, luv," Elsa heard a deep, rich voice to her right call out, and in startlement she whirled around towards the man casually leaning up against the nearby wall as he continued, "at least not until the Doc gives the okay. Cold may not bother you, milady, but burns are nothing to be messing around with, even if you weren't sick as a dog at the time." Elsa studied this stranger's appearance, which was as striking as any of the others she had ever met, friend or foe. He was ruggedly handsome, with his close-cropped hair and neatly trimmed sideburns, mustache and goatee. Over his frame he wore a leather jacket with numerous style flourishes which, despite of being a more somber black color, made Elisa's red jacket seem more tame in comparison. The most striking aspect of his appearance, however, was that where his left hand would be the man had a sharp metal hook instead. Altogether, it gave him an appearance of a man who, in contrast with his handsome face, appeared to be very dangerous and made her less liable to trust him.
"Who…?" Elsa started to ask, then she smacked her lips to try and wet her dry-feeling tongue as she tried again, "Just who are you?"
"Ah, that's right. Emma and David mentioned that you might not remember me," the man said in realization, then he rubbed his flesh and blood hand against his pant leg before extending it towards her and saying, "The name's Killian Jones. Pleasure to see you again, Your Highness." When Elsa didn't grip his hand right away, Killian added, "I used to be known by the name Captain Hook, back when I was in command of the Jolly Roger."
The name sent a shiver of shock rippling through Elsa's body as she recalled the fear and despair she experienced onboard that ship, hanging over a roaring fire in her cage and believing that her sister's fate depended on her complete cooperation with her captors. Before she realized what she was doing, Elsa aimed her hand at Killian and unleashed an ice blast at him. "Hey! Watch it!" Killian yells as he manages to duck under the ice blast, which splashes against the wall behind him and covers it with a layer of frost, and Elsa takes aim at him again. Before she could fire, however, Elsa hears the sounds of hurried footfalls and she turned towards the room's doorway just as Anna entered, followed closely by the young man from earlier, the blond woman Elsa seemed to recall encountering shortly after leaving Luffy's world, and a couple of other ladies Elsa didn't recognize. Anna hopped up onto the bed and threw her arms around Elsa, giving her a quick hug before she pulled back slightly and looked her in the eyes as she reassured her in a soothing tone, "Elsa, you're okay! It's all right, you can relax. We're both safe now."
"Bloody hell!" Killian exclaimed as he stood up straight and eyed Elsa warily, "What the blazes was that all about!?"
Elsa glanced frantically between Anna and Killian in confusion, taking in the mixture of expressions on the faces of the others gathered here as she did so, before she focused mainly on Anna and said, "But Anna, he said that he was from the Jolly Roger!"
"I know, but it's not the same ship that you were held on. We've seemed to have stumbled into another world-line, so we'll no doubt encounter a number of people and things here that have names we know but are still unfamiliar to us." Anna then turned towards Killian and added, "You recall that I reacted similarly when you introduced yourself to me, remember?"
"Vividly," Killian replied ruefully as he rubbed the back of his head, and as the motion pushed the hair there out on the way Elsa saw a nasty bump forming there, likely inflicted by a swing from Anna's frying pan, and Elsa had to suppress a chuckle as he continued, "But I seem to recall that your sister was the more level headed one."
"Well, if you've went through what Elsa had suffered onboard the Jolly Roger of our world, you'd probably lash out at those who claimed to be from that ship as well," Anna told him matter-of-factly before focusing on Elsa again and continuing, "Anyway, it seems that these people know us kind-of because the us from this world-line came here for a bit before returning to Arendelle, which still exists in this time! Perhaps that means that we're not that far off track and there's still a way for us to be able to return home!"
"Yeah, I'm still a little confused about that," one of the black-haired female strangers confessed, the one whose face seemed more accustomed to frowning than smiling, "You say that you're not the Anna and Elsa who came here to Storybrooke over a year ago, whose crazy aunt had cast a curse that had set nearly all of us at each other's throats? I don't quite get that."
"We have an aunt?" Elsa asked Anna, who just shrugged in response. Before Elsa could find a way to explain what she understood of the things Julian told her, and before anyone else could answer her own question, the young man who'd been watching over her earlier said to the woman who spoke earlier, "It's standard multiverse theory, Mom. Essentially, this Anna and Elsa are from a different timeline than ours, in which the history they lived through, as well as that of their own kingdom, took a different route than the one that led our Anna and Elsa to meeting us. It's kinda like what might have happened if Mom and Hook hadn't managed to rescue Marion from your dungeons in their trip to the past, or if they managed to catch Zelena and prevent her from killing Marion and taking her place: you would likely not have to had struggled as hard to be with Robin, and thus the you from that timeline would be vastly different from the you here, though whether you would have been better or worse from it is a matter of debate."
The one the boy had called Mom (or who Elsa thought he'd called "mom", it was kinda confusing) gave him a somewhat impressed smile (and Elsa thought she saw a bit of suppressed sadness in her eyes) as she asked, "How'd you come to learn so much about this stuff, Henry?"
Henry shrugged as he answered, "A number of different sources, though most of the multiverse stuff I put together from the different comics as well as anime and classic animation DVDs I bought with the allowance Mom gave me back in New York. 'Gargoyles' and 'Avatar: the Last Airbender' were among my favorites."
Henry's mother glared at the blond haired woman (who Elsa remembered had introduced herself as Emma Swan) with a incredulous look that bordered on outright rage as she demanded, "Just what kind of education did you give my son over there, Swan?"
"I gave our son a thorough and well rounded education," Emma corrected her, "as well as what I believed to be a normal upbringing, and I didn't give him this allowance unless he did all his chores and brought home good grades. If you think that I didn't do a good enough job during the one year I had him all to myself, then I'd blame the spell that you cast on me and Henry that changed our memories so that we'd believe I'd raised him all my life, rather than how I'd actually gave him up to be adopted by you."
"Wait, you're both this Henry's mothers?" Elsa asked them in confusion.
"Yes, Elsa," Regina said irritably, exasperated that Elsa didn't catch on the first time, "as Miss Swan had pointed out a second ago she had given birth to him, then when she gave him up for adoption I'd raised him for most of his life until the day he'd sought her out. I was pretty irritated that he'd done so at the time, but now I find myself grateful. If he hadn't I might still be still living for a fruitless quest for revenge, rather than actually living my life."
"I was glad to do it, Mom," Henry told her, then he turned towards Elsa and, his exuberance and excitement practically pouring through, he asked her, "Is what Anna told us really true? Did you really meet Demona and Princess Azula?"
"Um, yes?" Elsa answered, confused as to where he was going with this, "You know about them?"
"Of course! They're among my favorite villains in two of my favorite animated series of all time, the two I mentioned in fact," Henry answered, and Elsa could tell he was having a hard time keeping from bouncing on the heels of his feet in excitement, "What are they really like?"
"Well Demona was a pretty understanding sort, though she seemed a bit too full of sadness due to the death of her clans. We managed to get along rather well, though, and I managed to learn a lot from her in the short time we were together. I might have stuck around a bit longer and learned even more from her, maybe even become truly friends with her, but unfortunately she was a little too obsessed with revenge against humans. Even if my sister Anna wasn't a little too human herself, I still wouldn't have been able to bring myself to help Demona with her quest," Elsa told him, her voice softening with her reminiscence, then her voice became as hard as ice as she continued, "As for Azula, she was a homicidal psychopath who killed my sister and did her level best to kill me! I would have ended her were it not for her annoying friend Ty Lee disabling me with those jabs of hers!"
"Watch yourself, Elsa!" Regina growled at her, "I don't care if you've been sick in bed the last couple of days, if you talk to my son like that again I swear I'll blast you out of that bed and clean through the window, so help me!"
"Regina…" the other black-haired woman with the kinder face began, but Regina cut her off as she barked, "Don't 'Regina' me, Mary Margaret! Nobody treats my children like that, and you of all people ought to be more vested in Henry's emotional well-being, seeing as how he's your grandson!"
"It's okay, Mom, I'd heard a bit of what happened, but I didn't consider what that moment must have done to Elsa herself as I was too caught up in the fact that those characters were real," Henry assured Regina, then he turned back to Elsa and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Elsa."
Elsa sighed as she said, "I'm sorry too, I overreacted. Demona and Princess Azula were just fictional characters from something you liked, correct?" When Henry nodded yes, Elsa continued, "I understand, believe me. I probably would have reacted similarly if I found out somebody had met Hansel and Gretel in the flesh."
"Those two are nothing special," Regina grumbled, almost to herself, "A pair of troublemaking freeloaders."
Elsa cocked her eyebrow in surprise, but she was distracted Emma asked her, "So, how are you feeling, Elsa?"
After thinking about it for a moment, Elsa answered, "I feel a bit hungry, but other than that I'm much better."
Emma nodded in understanding, then she turned to Anna and asked, "And you? Feeling any ill effects or anything?"
The question caught Elsa by surprise, and she looked back and forth between Anna and Emma as she asked, "What do you mean? Did something happen to Anna?"
"Not really," Anna answered her, though from both the tone of her voice and the way she wouldn't look in her eyes Elsa guessed that she wasn't being entirely truthfully, "You just needed a little help to get better so I gave it. That's all."
"What do you mean you gave 'a little help'?" Elsa asked her. When Anna didn't answer, Elsa focused on Emma who said, "We couldn't take you to Dad's place as some of Hyde's people were snooping around at the time, so we brought you to mine instead. When we got here you took a turn for the worse. Not sure if it was your sickness, an infection from the burns you suffered, or a combination of the two, but your breathing became extremely ragged, your fever dangerously high. The way your condition was deteriorating you might not have survived the night. There was no time to summon either Doctor Wells or Doctor Jekyll, and even if we had turned around and headed straight for the ER instead you still might not have made it. I mentioned that I might be able to heal you with my magic, but I was reluctant to do so because you weren't awake to agree to it. Anna, however agreed to it on your behalf, and when she kept begging me to do it in spite of my warnings I went ahead and healed you."
"So you used magic to help me get better," Elsa confirmed. Truth be told she wasn't surprised by that. After all, Grandpabbie of the rock trolls helped Anna recover after Elsa had accidentally struck her with her powers all those years ago. "I don't understand what the problem is, though," Elsa continued in confusion.
"Magic always has a price," Regina clarified, "At least in this world it does, not sure if that applies to where you're from. Anyway since Anna was the one who agreed to the healing magic being used that naturally means..."
"What!?" Elsa exclaimed, startling the others into silence. She then turned to Anna and asked, "What's this about a 'price' Anna? Just what was it that you agreed to?"
"It was nothing, really," Anna replied defensively, "Emma warned me that there was a bit of a risk, but you were dying, and it's not like I put everything on the line for you. Anyway I feel fine, so maybe this 'cost' thing doesn't apply to us because we're not from around here, or maybe the things we've been through affected the way that that this world's magic affects us."
"Anna," Elsa admonished her firmly, not caring for how she was evading the question. However, no matter how long Elsa waited Anna wouldn't meet her probing gaze nor would she explain, so Elsa turned instead to Emma who said, "Different methods of magical healing have different costs, drawbacks or requirements for their use. However, with how bad off you were and the urgentness of the situation, the only method I had access to essentially required me to take the life force of one to replenish the waning life of another. I didn't want to do that because with how weak you were then I was afraid that giving up that much life energy would kill Anna, and if you are anything like the Elsa I know I was sure that you wouldn't thank me for that, but with Anna practically begging me to save you..."
"Are you kidding me!?" Elsa asked her in shock, then she turned her horrified gaze back to Anna as she said, "Anna? You...you...why?"
"You're my sister and I love you, I couldn't let you die," Anna told her, "Besides, our people need you. Our FAMILY needs you."
"They need you too, Anna!" Elsa feverantly argued as she tightly gripped Anna's shoulders, her mind desperately trying to reject the images of what she could have woken up to had the spell worked as Emma had described, "Do you think that our people or our family would be any happier if they lost you rather than me? Why would you consider such a thing?"
"I had to do something!" Anna argued back just as passionately, and Elsa could see Anna's tear-filled eyes drift over to the fabric still covering one side of her face, "It was my fault that you got hurt, Elsa. I couldn't just stand by and watch you die because of me!"
"What are you talking about?" Elsa asked in confusion, "Admiral Akainu was the one who burned me, not you, and I'm the one who chose to fight him despite how sick I was. I was the one who talked Luffy into helping his crew rather than fighting Akainu as he clearly wanted to. What happened was a result of my decisions, Anna, you have nothing to blame yourself for."
"But it's my fault that you got in that situation in the first place," Anna countered with a stubborn shake of her head, "I was the one who stowed away on the ship after you told me to stay home. After you had finished protecting the crew of our ship with your ice capsules you would have taken off on your glider if I weren't there, am I right? Possibly have done something about the storm so you could gather the crew back together and continue on your journey? If I hadn't been so stubborn when you told me no then you wouldn't have had to take such a crazy risk to save me from my stupidity, we wouldn't have ended up on the Grand Line, you wouldn't have gotten so sick, and we would never have met that horrible Akainu person in the first place!"
Elsa racked her brain but came up with nothing to counter Anna's entirely logical argument. "But that's still no reason for you to go throwing your life away just to save me," Elsa said instead, "I had come so close to losing you, not once but twice. Do you think that I could bear it if I woke up to find I had lost you forever this time?"
"I can't stand to lose you either," Anna replied softly, her lip trembling, "That's why I threw myself between you and Hans' blade rather than saving myself from freezing solid forever, that's why I did what I did now. I love you, Elsa, so as long as I can do anything to help you when you're in trouble, then no risk is enough to stop me."
Now Elsa really had nothing to say, as she felt the same way, so instead she pulled Anna into a tight embrace, their cheeks touching on the good side of Elsa's face, their silent tears mingling together.
After a couple of moments the silence was broken when Killian, his hook lightly touching the top of his upper lip, asked Elsa, "I'm kinda confused about something. You said that this Princess Azula had killed your sister, but Anna is in this same room with us alive and well. What happened, someone cast some kind of spell to bring her back?"
"Not exactly," Elsa answered him, pulling away from Anna to look him in the eye, "After Azula killed Anna with a blast of her lightning, I flipped out and tried to kill her using all the power at my disposal while she did the same to me. However, as she was blinded by my blizzard, Azula's lightning missed me and struck Anna again, bringing her back."
"Of course," Henry commented, "The Defibrillator effect."
Elsa wasn't sure what this "Defibrillator" thing was, but she guessed that it was something that harnessed lightning in order to help people somehow. Before she could think about it anymore, mister hook-hand spoke up again as he turned to Anna and said, "Well, however it happened, I'm sure that you're glad that it did. After all, I'm sure that this Kristoff of yours would rather be the groom at your wedding than to have to attend your funeral."
"W-w-w-w-wedding? G-g-g-groom? W-w-what are you talking ab-b-bout?" Anna stammered nervously, getting of Elsa's bed and backing slightly away from Killian as she did so, "Kristoff and I had just barely started going out, there's no way either of us would be ready for something like getting married! Is anyone else feeling like it's a little too warm in here?"
"What he meant was that when you and Elsa, that is the you and Elsa from our world, were returning to Arendelle, I'm pretty sure that our Elsa mentioned needing to finish the wedding preparations for you and Kristoff after you guys were able to kick Hans and his brothers, who had taken it over after Ingrid, yours and Elsa's aunt, used the Spell of Shattered Sight to 'convince' Anna to lock Elsa inside this one magical urn, which Hook and I accidentally brought with us back to Storybrooke from Rumpelstiltskin's vault years later," Emma explained, "I think that Ingrid was hoping that Elsa would stop you from doing so by killing you with her ice powers, but Elsa refused: choosing instead to trust that you still loved and trusted her, that you would make things right and set her free once you were free from Ingrid's influence."
"Nice lady," Elsa drawled, then, glad for this moment to lighten the mood, she focused on Anna and said in a teasing tone, "Anyway, sis, I don't see what you're getting so flustered about. After all, didn't you accept Hans' proposal after knowing him for less than one day, which is like a thousand times shorter than you've known Kristoff, and I must admit that I like and approve of Kristoff many times more than I did Hans, even if your boyfriend does sometimes smell a bit."
"You! You can just shut your stupid face!" Anna retorted as she whirled on Elsa, her face flush with embarrassment, "If I never hear the name 'Hans' again it'll be too soon! Anyway, that whole situation was 80%...90% your fault! If you hadn't locked yourself in your room for all those years, then I wouldn't have practically thrown myself at the first person who acted as though they cared about me. Yeah, I do like Kristoff, maybe even like him that way, but I just don't think that we're ready to….I don't think….Whew! It's getting really warm in here, could somebody please open a window or something?"
Elsa smiled and was about to assure Anna that she was only teasing, but then what she saw stopped her cold, her uncovered eye open wide and reflecting the flickering light that now illuminated the room. Emma, her eyes just as wide, said in a cautionary tone, "Anna, perhaps you should calm down now."
"What!? Why are you taking her si…?" Anna started to exclaim at Emma, but then she trailed off. Slowly raising her hand in front of her horror-struck face, Anna finally saw what everyone else had: her right hand was wreathed in bright flames! For a couple of heartbeats Anna just stood there, gripping her right arm with her left in horrified disbelief, then she screamed and ran out the bedroom door, still holding her arm in her hand before her protectively. Everyone stood stock still for a moment, rooted in place by shock Then they piled out the door after Anna, Elsa disentangling herself from her bedsheets as she did so.
When they got out of the room, Elsa and the others looked over the railing towards the first floor landing to see Anna still running as she frantically shook her hand in an effort to put out the flames, but this only appeared to be making matters worse. Not only did the flames refuse to go out, but every wave of her hand caused a fireball to be flung from it, splashing against and igniting some object that she passed.
"Well now!" Regina said in a cheery tone, smiling like the cat that ate the canary, "Today is turning out to be just chock-full of surprises!"
"Regina!" Emma admonished her, which Regina returned with a "what did I do?" look. Then Emma and Elsa exchanged a look, and without saying a word they understood what to do. While Emma free and Regina used their powers to smother the fires Anna unintentionally started, Elsa hopped down to the first floor and chased after her. When she caught up to her, Elsa found Anna in the kitchen, her flaming hand completely submerged in a basin built into the counter there that was filled with foamy water as well as some dirty dishes.
"Anna, I'm here," Elsa calmly told her, "It's okay, just calm down."
"Calm down!?" Anna said incredulously, her voice thick with panic and her face streaked with tears as she lifted her still flaming hand out of the water to show Elsa as she added, "My hand is burning, and I can't put it out!"
"No, it's not," Elsa explained in a soothing tone, "Anna, just listen…"
"What do you mean that it's not!? Just look at it!" Anna retorted, her voice cracking with her fear, "Look, Elsa, I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier, so please please please just put it out? Please!?"
"Anna, does it hurt?" Elsa asked her in a calm tone.
"Huh?" Anna asked back, uncomprehending.
"Your hand," Elsa asked again, "Does it hurt?"
Anna's wide eyes filled first with confusion, then with understanding. Of course Elsa could tell from the moment that she'd caught up to Anna that the flames covering her hand was posing no danger to her personally. Underneath the flames, Anna's hand was showing no signs of being burned, nor any other ill effects from the fire at all: it was just as pale as her hand that wasn't flaring up like a torch. Elsa figured that, just as the cold doesn't bother her in the slightest (except in that dream which she wished that she could forget), Anna cannot be harmed by the flames that she produces.
Looking back and forth between her flaming hand and Elsa for a second, Anna finally locked her gaze with her sister's as she asked, "But what does this mean?"
Elsa gave Anna a reassuring smile as she said, "I think it means that your powers have finally woken up, little sister."
"What?" Anna asked again, not understanding, "But how?"
"I'm no expert, luv," Killian, who was at the forefront of those who had caught up to them, chimed in, "but I'd wager that your getting all hot and bothered at the thought of your getting engaged to Kristoff was what set it off."
"Of course it also could be the healing spell Emma used that's responsible," Regina suggested. At everyone's questioning glances she explained, "If you're really from another worldline or whatever then it's possible that the rules of magic are somewhat different for you than it is for us. Instead of the spell taking your life energy to replenish Elsa's, the way it would for any of us, in exchange for healing Elsa the spell activated in you a power that could easily harm Elsa and, by extension, leave you vulnerable to getting hurt by Elsa's ice magic."
"What!?" Anna exclaimed. Elsa's heart faltered as Anna absentmindedly clutched her head in both of her hands, including the one still covered in flames. Thankfully, though, Anna's hair did not smolder or even catch fire as she started pacing back and forth as she said anxiously, "No no no no no, this can't be happening! Not now!"
"Not helping, Mom," Elsa heard Henry say softly to Regina, to which she replied, "Sorry, Henry." To her credit Regina did sound genuinely apologetic, but Elsa couldn't focus on her with Anna needing her sister right now.
"Calm down, Anna," Elsa tried again, "It'll be all right."
"How!?" Anna barked at her, tears streaming down her face again as she thrust her flaming hand at Elsa, "How can this be all right? You heard what the pirate said!"
"Ex-pirate," Killian corrected her, but Anna paid him no heed as she continued in a broken voice, "I….I'm gonna have to break up with Kristoff, to tell him that I never want to see him again! Or maybe it would be better if I just stayed here. You could tell him that I died in that storm, that you weren't able to save me, then Kristoff would be able to remember me as I was…"
"No, Anna, you won't have to do any of that," Elsa tried to assure her, but Anna was having none of that as she argued, "Yes I do! Just thinking about Kristoff caused this to happen! What should happen if we get married, and then we….we…"
As Anna stammered in embarrassment, the flames on her hand flared up even higher, nearly licking the kitchen ceiling until Anna covered it with her other hand until it settled back down again. "You see?" Anna continued, "I can't even think about….about that without my hand flaring up like a bonfire! What if that happened during the actual act? I can't risk anything happening to Kristoff because of me, I just can't!"
"This is all sounding very familiar," Elsa said thoughtfully, then she told Anna, "Look, I promise you Anna that you won't hurt Kristoff or anyone else."
"How can you be sure of that, Elsa?" Anna pleaded, tears streaming down her cheeks, "It took you years to learn control over your powers, to learn how not to hurt others with them."
"That's because I spent all that time being afraid of them," Elsa explained, "I focused all my efforts on trying to keep by gift hidden, rather than learning to accept and control them. Besides, you have something that I didn't back then."
"What's that?" Anna hiccupped.
"Me," Elsa told her with a smile, "You've got me, Anna. You never once gave up on me, not when I plunged Arendelle into what must have seemed to be an eternal winter, nor when I had Marshmallow practically chuck you and Kristoff off the North Mountain, so I promise I won't be giving up on you. You said yourself earlier that you and Kristoff had barely started dating, so by the time you get to that more serious stage of your relationship I'll get you so in touch with your gift that it'll seem like a natural part of you, and you won't have to worry about it acting up during any….inopportune moments."
"Really?" Anna asked with a sniff.
"Of course!" Elsa assured her, encasing both of her hands in ice gauntlets before she gripped Anna's hand between them, "What are sisters for?"
"We'll help as well," Emma chimed in once she and Regina rejoined the group, the faint smell of singed upholstery trailing after them, "Regina and I are particularly well versed on that particular aspect of magic, so we'll be more than happy to tutor you on how to control it as much as we can until we are able to help you to return home."
"We will?" Regina said incredulously, and Elsa got the impression that she was volunteered for this task without being asked first and that she wasn't happy about it. When Emma practically glared at her, however, Regina put on what appeared to be a somewhat fake smile as she said, "Of course we will. Just ask anyone here and they'll tell you that I've thrown more fireballs than I can keep track of. Mark my words, Anna, by the time you return to Arendelle I'll have you hurling fire like an expert."
"Really, Regina? Do you honestly think that you still have it in you?" Elsa heard a male voice say from behind the others. When they parted Elsa saw what appeared to be a well dressed Englishman. She supposed that he might have been handsome, even with the long scar running down the right side of his face from just next to his eye to his jawbone and the small one just resting on his left cheekbone. However, despite this Elsa found herself repulsed by him. He made no aggressive moves, wasn't physically intimidating in any way, but Elsa felt that this man was more dangerous, more evil than anyone she had ever encountered, even Akainu. Adding to the impression that he was rather dangerous was the casual and carefree way he held himself in spite of the fact that he was in the same room with three experienced magical practitioners in addition to Anna who, despite her inexperience with using magic and her current inability to control her newly awakened powers, Elsa imagined that she'd still be rather a dangerous opponent if push came to shove. Still, this man just stood there as if they posed no threat to him, that Elsa and the others were merely insects that he could crush at any moment that he chose & that they were only alive currently because they amused him. "Maybe you might have been able to before, buck when you still had that dark side of you to serve as your strength, but now that you've exorcised 'The Evil Queen'? I'd say that you're about as useless as my 'brother'."
"What do you want here, Hyde?" Regina growled.
"That's 'Mr. Hyde' to you, and I came to see what was it that was bringing the heroes of Storybrooke together in one place. Of course I half-imagined to find you concocting some half-baked and destined-to-fail plan to 'take back your town', so it comes as some surprise to me to instead discover that you're here entertaining some interesting and prestigious guests," Hyde continued in his calm tone that raised hackles on the back of Elsa's neck. After a instant's pause he looked around at everyone staring at him and continued, "Well don't look so surprised people. After Sheriff Nolan failed to return home for more than a day, and when his wife Mary Margaret suddenly took off in the middle of the night a couple of days ago with her son, it became pretty obvious that something was up. Of course since I had come into possession of my new real-estate I've been doing some light reading, getting caught up on the current events in this fair land, so I know all about our current visitors." Hyde then fully faced Elsa, and she felt a shiver run down her spine as he said, "Queen Elsa Of Arendelle, one of the only practitioners….excuse me, I mean surviving practitioners of Ice Magic, as well as her lovely sister Princess Anna. How lovely to have you grace Storybrooke with your presence once again. But, of course, you're not the Elsa and Anna who've been here once before, now are you?"
"How did you know…?" Elsa started to ask.
"Please, I've presided over the Land of Untold Stories for a good long while, so I know a lost soul when I see one, and right now your sister is about as lost as they come," Hyde explained, then he looked past Anna and said to her, "That looks pretty serious there, dear Anna, you really ought to have it looked at by a professional. Of course I do have some associates, Like Mr. Gold, who was the one who taught Regina, and I can have them help you get a handle on that gift of yours. I'm sure that they'd do a much better job than the washed-up mayor over here."
Behind him she saw Regina form a fireball in her hand, keeping it there for a second with a furious look on her face before she extinguished it again, but Elsa kept her focus on Hyde. As he made to move around her Elsa sidestepped to block his path feeling the surge of power begging to be unleashed in her arm as she said in a firm tone, "My sister wants nothing to do with you or your associates, so you can show yourself out."
"Relax there, Two-Face, I wasn't speaking with you. Besides, are you your sister's warden?" Hyde said dismissively to Elsa, then he chuckled as if at some private joke that only he got (nobody else there laughed at it either) before continuing, "I believe that your sister is old enough and intelligent enough to make up her own mind."
The flame on Anna's hand flared even higher, providing a visual indicator that she was as sick of this guy as Elsa was, and Anna said in a low voice that just barely escaped being a growl, "It's as Elsa said. Not. Interested. So get lost."
Hyde quirked an eyebrow, then he shrugged and said, "If you change your mind and decide that you want a real teacher….well, I'm sure that you can find me." He then turned around and walked back the way he came, turning back before he went out the door and said with a tip of an imaginary hat, "A pleasure meeting you, your Highnesses." When he was gone Elsa felt that she could breathe a little easier, and the audible sigh she heard from everyone present told her the others felt the same way.
"Thanks," Anna said with a sigh, the flame on her hand reducing itself to a more moderate height, "That man was so aggravating, I'm not sure I could have kept myself from flaring up even more and frying everyone here if you hadn't intervened."
"Yeah, I didn't Like him either," Elsa agreed.
"Mr. Hyde's pretty much the human embodiment of pure evil, so there's not much there to like," Regina explained.
Just then, a swirl of green smoke appeared in the middle of the room, and everyone backed away from it as the smoke cleared to reveal 3, No….4, Elsa corrected herself, people within it. One was a man who bore something of a resemblance to Mr. Hyde. In fact the man looked physically identical to Hyde right down to his scars, but unlike Hyde Elsa felt no aversion to this newcomer. The other male with Hyde's double (his good twin?) was in his 30's or 40's, clean-shaven, and his hair was, for the most part, a shade of blond somewhere between Emma's golden color and Elsa's own platinum. However, close to where his hair met his scalp the air turned a much darker shade than even Emma's, and Elsa had no idea what could make his hair do that (had he been cursed somehow?)
Out of all the newcomers, however Elsa's gaze was drawn to the woman who stood with them, or rather the angelic child cradled in her arms. The baby girl was absolutely adorable, and Elsa couldn't help but smile at how peacefully she was sleeping. The child's appearance was so similar to the woman, not to mention how the woman was looking down rather fondly at the sleeping child in her arms, caused Elsa to conclude that the woman was the child's mother. Elsa also noted that the woman also looked much like Regina, with red hair instead of black which contrasted nicely with her green dress, and Elsa had to wonder if this woman was Regina's sister or other close relation. Though her companions looked somewhat startled at the state of the house, the woman hadn't looked up from the sleeping child's face as she said, "We're back, and little Robin did just fine. Yes she did! Who's my brave little girl?" Then the woman took a big whiff as if she smelled something, and she looked up in confusion as she asked, "Is something burning?"
"That would be the house, Zelena dear," Regina answered drolly.
"What happened? Did someone attack while we were out?" Zelena asked in concern.
"Hyde did pay us a visit," Regina answered her, "but it was more of a cordial visit than anything (at least as much as that man is capable of.) No, this was all Anna's doing. She got overly excited when Emma woke up and got carried away with the pyrotechnics."
"Really?" Zelena asked in surprise, her eyes widening as they locked onto Anna's flaming hand, "I had thought that Anna was the least interesting of the two sisters,"
"Really, sis," Regina answered him, "It turns out that she's a bit of a late bloomer to magic, and she kinda freaked out when she flamed on."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Anna said sheepishly, starting to wave with her flaming hand before she remembered herself and waved with her other as she continued, "Nice to see you again Dr. Whale, Dr. Jekyll."
"Good to see you again, miss Anna," Dr. Whale said with a smile, "I should let you know, however, that I do not allow there to be any smoking around my patients, even if that patient happens to be your sister." When nobody reacted, Dr. Whale explained, "Get it? Smoke? Fire?"
"I think that you're right, Regina," Emma said with a groan, "We were really overdue for another doctor in this town."
"Everyone's a critic," Dr. Whale complained, "You know, there aren't too many doctors in this day and age that are willing to make a house call, if there are any at all, so a little more gratitude here would be appreciated, thank you."
"I haven't ripped your heart out and crushed it before your eyes, have I?" Regina told him with her arms crossed and a corner of her mouth turned up in a hint of a smile. When Emma and Mary Margaret glared at her, Regina said defensively, "What? Dr. Whale can tell inappropriate jokes but I get the evil eye?"
"Your joke wasn't really funny," Hyde's lookalike, who Elsa guessed was this "Dr. Jekyll" said as he opened the black bag he was holding.
"Anyway, let's take a look at this, shall we?" said as he stepped to take in place directly in front of Elsa and began to peel the sticky fabric from her face, Dr. Jekyll standing next to him and wiping the area covered with something soft and dampened with something that smelled. As it was removed, Elsa was relieved to find that she could still see out of that eye, though the area around it felt somewhat tender to her. As he poked and prodded the area where she had been burnt, Dr. Whale said, "Yes, that's looking rather good."
"Good? That's perfect!" Anna exclaimed, "You can't even tell that Elsa was ever even burned, doctors! It's a miracle, thank you!"
"Your praise is welcome, princess, but it's really Emma that you should be thanking," Dr. Jekyll told her, "It was due to her healing spells that Elsa was able to heal up so quickly without so much as a scar, all we did was bandage her up and make sure that it didn't get infected."
"Well, I think you both all the same," Anna told him, then she looked at Emma and said, "You too! I can't thank you enough for what you've done for my sister!"
"Think nothing of it," Emma assured her, "Even if your sister wasn't exactly like someone I'd befriended a year ago, I would still do everything in my power to help, and I'm glad that it worked out relatively well for you as well."
"Well, even if she did end up with a scar like Zuko's I think that she would have been just as beautiful, but I'm glad it worked," Henry told them.
" 'Zuko'?" Elsa asked, unsure if that was supposed to be a name or was some work that she didn't know the meaning of yet.
"Oh, uh…" Henry said, and it appeared from the way he was hesitating that he was afraid that he'd unintentionally done something wrong, "…Zuko is the name of Azula's younger brother."
That psycho has a brother!? Elsa thought to herself, but she didn't say anything out loud: partly because she figured that he didn't mean to upset her, and partly because she didn't want to upset their hosts any further as they may need their help to return home. However, her thoughts must have been plain on her face as Henry hastily said, "Oh! But Zuko isn't really anything like Azula! In fact, once he got over his anger issues Prince Zuko turned out to be a pretty decent guy, becoming Avatar Aang's firebending teacher and helping him to end the Thousand Year War and restore balance to the world."
"I see," Elsa said, and she was surprised to find that she was smiling. She didn't know what to expect that she'd feel after hearing about this, but she didn't expect that she'd feel this tremendous sense of relief. She didn't talk about it much at the time, as she was preoccupied with getting Anna to safety at the time, but Elsa had felt somewhat guilty that she and the others had left Aang when she did. It felt as though she was running with her tail between her legs when she could have been helping Aang bring peace to the world, not to mention that she was practically letting Azula get away with what she'd did to her sister. However, it seemed as though Aang had gotten the help he needed after all, and considering how Azula had nearly killed Anna, hearing that Azula's own brother had (at least in part) handed her her defeat seemed rather fitting, even poetic. Elsa sighed and said, "That's nice to know. Thanks for telling me this, Henry." When Henry smiled in relief and nodded, Elsa turned towards Anna and said, "Now, I think that we've kept that there fire burning long enough."
"Yes, thank you, Elsa," Anna said gratefully as she held her flaming hand out towards Elsa, but Elsa shook her head and said, "No, you should put it out yourself."
"But….how would I do that?" Anna said uncertainly.
"Anna, as you probably know by now, my powers are affected by my emotions," Elsa explained, "Whether it's magic, bending, or something else entirely, we know that my abilities have went out of control when I'm afraid and agitated, and when I'm calm I have a better handle on them. I'm willing to bet that you're the same." After a moment of consideration, Elsa added, "Try this: close your eyes." When Anna hesitated, Elsa gave her a reassuring smile which Anna returned as she did as she was instructed. "Now picture the North Mountain in your mind," Elsa continued, "It's just the two of us, you and me, skating around on the frozen lake. It's quiet and peaceful, and snow is gently falling all around us. Even the air is still." As she spoke, Elsa saw Anna's face grow peaceful and less tense, the flame on her hand reducing in size. When it finally winked out, Elsa said, "Now, open your eyes."
Anna did so, gasping when she saw her hand was no longer wreathed in flames. "It's….it's gone!" Anna exclaimed in surprise.
"You did it," Elsa said proudly.
"Congratulations," Emma agreed.
"So, what should we do now?" Henry asked the room at large.
"I think that we should try and find a way to get Anna and Elsa back home," Mary Margaret suggested to them all.
"I agree," Emma said, "Why don't you and Henry go to the library and…"
Emma was interrupted when the house started to shake suddenly, causing Regina to prepare another fireball in her hand as she said dryly, "What now?"
As they watched, a section of the floor collapsed in on itself as if it were made of dirt rather than wood revealing what appeared to be a bottomless pit beneath it, and out of the hole climbed...a rabbit. Even if this rabbit wasn't larger than the normal and wasn't climbing out of a hole that magically appeared in the floor, Elsa would be able to tell that it wasn't an ordinary hare by the fact that it was standing and walking on its rear paws, wearing a crisp, white suit, and looking around as if it were intelligent. It was facing the other way, so it didn't notice Elsa and the others as it said aloud, "Here we are, kids, Storybrooke."
Elsa didn't have to wait long to wonder who the rabbit was talking to, as a couple of people (humans, from what Elsa could tell) soon climbed out of the hole as well. If possible the two people were dressed even more stylishly than the rabbit, looking more like ambassadors or even royalty in their fancy white outfits, though the man with his close cropped blond hair looked somewhat uncomfortable in his getup than the lady as he said, "Hey, rabbit, are we in someone's house?"
"Couldn't be helped, Will" the rabbit answered him, "With the magical protection around this place, not to mention all the interference stirred up in this land recently, it's extremely hard to see ahead and know what's going on here without some powerful magic that's likely to give us away. Are you sure that you want to do this?"
"Yes, I do" Will told the rabbit, "I've got to try and clear the air between us, maybe see if he'll accept our invitation."
"Then it's best if we're cautious about this," the rabbit told him, "By opening my hole inside somewhere we can limit the number of people who may see it, reducing the chance that someone who might hurt you or our queen will know you're here."
"I see," Will's female companion said, sounding impressed, "That was pretty smart thinking, rabbit."
"I think so too," Regina agreed, causing the three newcomers to turn suddenly, looking startled. For a moment Will's group simply stared at Emma's. Then Elsa saw a glimmer of recognition in Will's eyes as he said, "Sherriff Swan?"
"Will Scarlett," Emma said with a nod.
"Friends of yours," the Rabbit asked.
"You could say that," Will told him.
"Then I'll trust you kids to their care," the rabbit said to him before turning to the woman, taking one of her hands in both of her paws as he continued, "You just be careful while you're here, Your Highness, please. I'd stay with you, but I'm afraid that would make you guys stick out more. Just keep your head down."
"You too, Rabbit," the woman replied in a fond, gentle tone, "Say hello to your wife for me."
"I will," the rabbit said with a tip of his hat, "See you kids in a couple of days." Then the rabbit turned and hopped back into his hole which promptly sealed itself behind him, looking as though nothing had happened there in the first place.
"Well, that's one less thing I'm going to have to fix," Emma quipped, though her attempt at humor did little to lessen the tension which took form of an uncomfortable silence. After a moment Will cleared his throat and said uncomfortably, "Hook."
"Will," Killian said in an even tone devoid of emotion.
"And you must be Anna and Queen Elsa," Will said to them, "We never formally met, but I had caught sight of the huge snowman you'd made as it trampled through town. Gotta say, that's some pretty nice work." He then let out a painful sounding chuckle which nobody joined in on. After another beat of silence Will asked, "So….um, what are all of you doing here?"
"That's what we ought to be asking. What brings you and…?" Emma started to ask in response, trailing off as she focused on the woman instead and said, "I'm sorry, I don't think that I got your name."
"That would be the Red Queen of Wonderland," Regina answered before Will's companion could speak up, "My mother's little patsy. She told me a bit about her while she was still alive, plus I saw a bit about her in Henry's book."
"Your mother?" the woman asked.
"Cora, though you probably know her better as the Queen of Hearts," Regina explained with a tight-lipped smile.
"The Queen of Hearts was your mother?" Will asked in surprise. When Regina answered with a curt nod, Will scratched the back of his head with one hand uncomfortably and clutched at his chest with the other as he said, "Wow."
"Well I'm not that person anymore," the woman answered, "Now I'm just Anastasia, Will's fiancée, though the people of Wonderland still insist on calling me their queen since Will and I helped Alice and Cyrus rid our land of Jafar."
"I see," Emma said to her simply, "And the reason for your coming to Storybrooke today?"
"Well, the truth is that I feel I owe Robin for Anastasia and me getting back together," Will explained, "so I thought I'd see if he'd like to attend our wedding as my best man."
"I'm afraid….that you're too late, Will," Regina said in a stiff voice, and glancing her way Elsa saw her swallow slightly as her eyes watered slightly, "Robin is….he's…"
"That's all right, Regina," Emma said as she patted Regina's back comfortingly and Henry grabbed his mother's hand, though Elsa could easily guess what Regina was trying but unable to say, "Mom, why don't you take Henry over to the Library and dig up any and all information you can locate on Zelena's Time Portal, see if you can figure out how it was that this Anna and Elsa managed to use it to cross over into this world-line, or whatever it is they called it, and if there's anyway we can use it to return them home. Perhaps you can take Will and Anastasia with you to help, and you can catch them up on everything."
"Sure, Emma," Mary-Margaret told her.
"I can help as well," Zelena offered, "It is my portal, after all."
"If they have any questions I'm sure they can call you," Emma said with a shake of her head, "but I'd rather you go with Anna and Regina."
"Why?" Zelena asked her, sounding indignant.
"Hyde's already expressed interest in Anna, and I don't want Regina to be the only one with her should he try a more aggressive approach," Emma explained.
"I suppose that I could take the princess here into the woods on the outskirts of town," Regina begrudgingly suggested, "where we can work on her control without anyone nearby to get hurt."
"What do you mean?" Anna asked her, holding her no-longer-flaming hand up as she said, "We already got it shut down, maybe we could call this good enough for now?"
"Please tell me that you're kidding!" Regina said with a roll of her eyes.
"No, Anna, that's not a good idea," Elsa agreed, "I tried the whole 'conceal, don't feel' thing, remember? We both know how that ended: with Arendelle covered in an endless winter and you turned into a frozen statue. You don't want the same thing to happen with your powers of fire, do you?"
"Okay, okay….I get the point," Anna conceded, "I'll head off into the woods and practice throwing fireballs at pinecones or something."
Emma nodded, then she turned to Killian and said, "Kilian, I'm gonna contact my dad at the station about Hyde, see if he can keep an eye on him, and I'd feel better if you can back him up. I'd rather not have him do anything that keeps them from returning home."
"Of course, Emma," Killian assured her, "I won't let anything happen to him, but what about you?"
"I intend to go and talk to someone who's likely to know an alternate way our friends may be able to return home, and I'd like Elsa to accompany me," Emma explained to him.
"Emma, I really hope that you're not suggesting who I think you are," Killian interjected, concern evident in his voice.
"I am," Emma replied determinedly, "It's time for me and Elsa to pay a visit to Mr. Gold."
Meanwhile, deep in the forest, a lone swan floats on a pond. Then tendrils of water magically coil up and form a cocoon around it that conceals it from view, growing larger and larger until it finally disperses, revealing within it a beautiful woman with blond hair and a fancy dress looking around frantically as she called out in a panicked voice, "Derek! Alise! Where are you!? Where am I!?"