Shield BUS: New York Coastal Waters
20:00 hours Eastern Standard Time.
"I can't believe we have one of the Avengers on our bus!" Jemma said, excitedly.
After a moment of analyzing the thoroughly shocked Elsa, Melinda May nodded to herself, snorted slightly, and turned and walked back up the hallway.
Jemma looked after her. "I suppose I should mention that you're only the second coldest person on the bus." Skye and Fitz laughed.
After a few moments, Elsa began to find her voice again. "How... how did you? Wait... you told me Arendelle was frozen."
"It began to melt," Fitz began, his voice betraying a Scottish accent.
"A few hours after the battle for New York," Jemma finished.
"And before you ask," Coulson said, "We needed some of the readings that Mr. Stark took in order to find all of the pieces. Fitz and Simmons were on site, until we recalled them when we were about ready to get you. Then we had a forced detour to Peru, or we would have been here a week ago."
Elsa looked at Phil and nodded slowly. "How did you survive?"
"Your ice stopped me from losing any more blood, and slowed down the heart so that the internal injuries didn't kill me on the spot. The helicarrier has a trauma unit, and a surgeon on staff. I was comatose, but I was lucky. I came out of it in just a few days." He smiled. "Thank you for saving my life, I was right to trust you."
Elsa's eyes grew wide, and it was apparent to everyone in the room that she was trying not to cry. "Thank you, Phil," she said. Her mind had begun to have time to process everything. She swallowed as the mental anguish threatened to overtake her again. "Why didn't Anna's body melt with the rest of the ice?"
"We're not sure," Jemma said. "It's, well, magic. Maybe it's something about your shared bloodline that makes her more sympathetic to holding on to the magical energy. I don't know." She frowned for a moment. "But.. since her body's still here, we thought you needed to see it person."
"And maybe, just maybe" Leopold continued, "we'd help you find a way to reverse it. I know. I know, you don't know how. Tony tried a lot of things. But if it's a question of the right circumstances..."
"What better way to trigger it?" Jemma concluded.
Elsa's eyes went wide. Anna? Bring Anna back? She'd move Heaven and Earth itself if that's what it took. She'd told Loki that she'd gladly sacrifice her magic for just one more day with Anna. It hadn't changed. She struggled to control her emotions, and thanked SHIELD one more time for the bracers. "Thank you," she said again.
"It's a long flight," Phil said, standing back up. "Fitz? Simmons? Why don't you show Ms. Elsa around?"
"Ooh! Wait until you see..." Jemma said, almost dragging Elsa away through the bowels of the bus. Leopold and Skye exchanged looks, grinned, and followed along behind.
"Thoughts?" Phil asked Grant.
"Normally, I'd ask 'Why Us?', but with your connection to the VIP," Grant answered, professionally, "I'd have to agree with the assessment." He shrugged. "After our first two ops turned hot, it might be good for the team to have a slower paced assignment."
Phil nodded.
"She's level headed, and remarkably stoic, from everything in your briefing. I think a lot of people would have broken down with the number of emotional shocks, but she took each one well. I thought May was made of ice, but Elsa..." Ward paused. "No disrespect intended, sir."
Coulson grinned. "None taken. Thank you, Agent Ward."
SHIELD Bus: Greenland
21:00 Hours Eastern Standard time.
The days was beginning to catch up to Elsa. That morning had been a round of tests from Tony Stark, before settling in for the Star Wars trilogy. And now they were on a Transatlantic flight that was going to go at least another six hours. Jemma and the rest seemed nice enough, but Elsa was used to being alone.
After being given the tour, and spending some time in the lounge talking about the pasts and training of the agents... and Skye, who was remarkably evasive about it, Elsa finally gave a yawn. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's been a long day for me."
"Oh!" Jemma said, startled. "Of course. You can have my bunk. I'll sleep out here. I'm not ready to go to bed just yet."
"Thank you," Elsa said, politely. "Can you show me?"
"Of course!" Jemma said, jumping up.
"And that's the light switch..." she finished.
Elsa unslung her travel bag, hastily packed by Ms. Pepper, as they got into the room. She fished out a book,, and sat down on the bed.
"Redeemer's Oath?" Jemma asked.
"Something Dr. Banner gave me before I left. Said it was a long flight, and he knew I liked stories."
"By John Burkhart," Jemma said. Then she gave a visible shudder. "Those hands are creepy."
"Anyway," Elsa said, "Thank you for use of your bed tonight. I just hope I can sleep."
"Everything will be fine, Elsa. You'll see!" Jemma said brightly, then left the room, closing the door behind her.
It was funny, the way life kept throwing optimists toward Elsa. She sat down on the bed, cracked open the book, and began to read.
SHIELD Bus: Norway (Arendelle)
08:00 Hours Eastern Standard Time (15:00 Hours CET)
There was plenty of green plains east of Arendelle , and it was there Melinda put "The Bus" down. The "crew", as Leopold put it, that went walking toward the fjords past the wall town of Arendelle consisted of Leopold, Jenna, Skye, Phil, and Elsa herself.
"We're in the borders of the Country of Norway," Phil told her, as they walked, "The rehabilitating of Arrendale into the 21st century is too big a project for SHIELD. If you wanted it, you'd still be technically queen. But what you told me before New York, and what you told Captain Rodgers, is that you didn't think you would be capable of it.
It was hard to say again, now that she was standing here. But while Elsa had her faults, pride and power were not among them. "In my own time, I think, I would have been a good monarch. But this isn't my time," Elsa told him.
The city state of Arendelle looked almost like Elsa remembered it. She'd last seen it in the Summer Snowstorm, that she'd caused. But she had something more important to focus on right now. The woman heading their way. "Phil?" Elsa asked, "Who's that?"
"I'm not sure, but she seems to be expecting us," Phil observed. "Hello!"
"Hello, Agents!" the woman said, getting closer. She was a petit woman, a bit smaller then Elsa, with light, almost dreamy, brown eyes, and muddy blond hair. She wore an official looking uniform labeled "Politi- og lensmannsetaten". She looked vaguely flustered and dirty.
"Oh, right," said Jemma. "Members of the Norwegian Police Service were assisting us with the search and keeping away the riff raff." Noting Phil's grumpy look, "Some things, like unexplained weather phenomenon, are just too hard to keep quiet. Besides, we needed the local help."
The woman nodded, and introduced herself, "I'm Lenora Klepp. We were waiting for you to return," she told them, giving a wan smile. "Sorry, there was a fire. The three of us went to help. It's contained..." she swallowed, meeting Elsa's eyes. "We had to leave your sister alone. Jeg beklager," she apologized.
Elsa cocked her head, "Snakker du norsk?"
Lenora nodded again, "I do. Queen Elsa," she said, still smiling. "Though, I think most of your teammates only speak English. We've still got a bit of a walk ahead of us, shall we continue?"
Phil continued to look grumpy. "You left her *alone*?" he asked.
"Look, we wanted to help. No one else even knows what we're doing out there. I'm a cop, not some sort of … interstellar super agent."
"How goes the integration project?" he asked, starting to walk, and changing the subject, somewhat mollified.
"Surprisingly well. After all, everyone got frozen pretty much equally, so family units are all together. The only exceptions are the ambassadors who were here for the wedding, and mostly didn't have partner or kids, they're taking it pretty well. They'd come here to try to find a noble, or perhaps royal, spouse."
"Mostly?" asked Leopold.
"There's... just one exception," Lenora explained, letting out a sigh. "I thought SHIELD knew about that."
Elsa's eyes went wide, momentarily, before they were shut tight. She stopped so quick that Skye bumped into her.
"The Duke of Wësselton," she said quietly. He'd called her a monster. And perhaps he'd been proven right. She'd separated him from his wife and children.
"We do," Phil said, he reached out to put his hand on Elsa's shoulder, but she flinched away.
"It's... kinda of easy to tell when you're nervous, Elsa," Skye observed. "We can feel it in the air tonight."
"No fair making contemporary music references to people who've not lived through it, Skye," Jemma chided. "She's right though, and there's no reason to be nervous!"
"We're almost there," noted Lenora, "Queen Elsa... you may want to prepare yourself. They had to leave your sister... well.."
"Anna!" Elsa cried out. The picture had showed her intact... here... she looked like a broken statue, with about her top third lying on the grass. She still showed no sign of melting. There was a depression in the statue, toward the left of the otherwise smooth side. "What... what happened?"
"We had to break it," Leopold said, "If we're going to return Anna fully intact, we need to have the last piece. He turned to Elsa, who was gripping her necklace. She pulled at it, gently, taking fist sized piece of ice off its frozen chain. Then she forced herself to walk to the macabre statue, placing the stone into the gap.
Nothing happened.
She twisted it, slightly, and she knew when she got it right when it suddenly fused together. Even when she pulled at it in surprise, it wouldn't break again.
Phil and Skye hurried forward to help Elsa pick up the other piece, and it fused again into one whole statue. Her hand was still outstretched to catch the blade by the treacherous Hans. The one that been aimed to end Elsa's life.
Elsa looked at her, and her eye brimmed with tears. All she could think about was how meant her sister meant for her. How much she needed her back. How close she was... and nothing was happening. Despite her bracers, the temperature had dropped significantly, and Elsa's tears shattered against the ground.
"Elsa?" said Skye, somewhat nervously.
"...I can't. I don't know how." Elsa turned to Skye, and Skye flinched at the haunted look of despair that the former queen wore.
"What is the opposite of fear?" Phil asked suddenly.
"I'm sorry?" asked Elsa, Phil again managing to catch her off guard.
"What is the opposite of fear?" Phil repeated, smiling.
"Courage," Elsa replied automatically. "It's what allows you to act in place of fear."
Phil nodded. "But not the kind of fear where you are afraid of what is happening. That was the Battle of New York... and you faced that. What is the opposite of fear of what will happen?"
"I... I don't know."
"Hope. You've never had hope in your life. Things are going to get better. You have, probably more real friends then you had in your life. You have Mr. Stark, Mr. Rodgers, Dr. Banner, the other avengers. All of whom can, and will count on you if their life gets rough. And you know you can count on them. Think of how much brighter the future is with people you can trust."
"And you," Elsa said, with just the hint of a smile.
"And me. You're a good person, Elsa. You saved my life, and I trust you can save Anna."
"Elsa?" Skye was trying again. "I have something to show you," she had pulled a laptop from her backpack. It was a YouTube video. The family she'd saved. An extended interview, talking about how she risked herself to save them. Talking about the ice magic that had kept them alive. Kept hope alive.
Was it really that simple?
She deactivated her antimagic bracers.
She drew on those feelings, on her love for her sister that she'd never fully expressed before.
"Yes," she whispered. "I want to build a snowman. I'm sorry it took so long. I didn't know how much I needed you, I really do. And now you're gone. Please just ask me once more. Just one more time. I promise I'll open the door..." She embraced the ice outright, closing her eyes.
[Youtube: "Yes, I want to build a Snowman." -TZ]
Anna had never lost hope.
Elsa heard a gasp a moment later, and forced her eyes open. Color was flowing back into Anna's body, starting at her chest, reverting from the ice that held her spirit captive. Elsa stared as the process completed, then threw herself into her sister's arms.
"Anna!"
They were like that for almost half a minute. Elsa crying warm, wet tears. Anna looking dazed and bemused.
It was Phil who broke the silence among the SHIELD agents, and it was with a surprised "Ugh". Then Lenora gave a cry of pain, and slumped to the ground, clutching her arm. Red drops fell to the grass below.
Hans had his sword out, the tip red with blood, and leveled at the chest of the sisters.