"Again!"

Loren was taking his relatively new position as her lieutenant quite seriously, as it turned out, and she couldn't be prouder. He really had matured since she'd first met him. It was because of him that she and Elsa were able to have the occasional moment to themselves and for that, she was grateful.

Once she heard that the sisters were making their way back to the palace, Kaya came back and figured she would keep what she'd learned to herself for now. She hoped that Elsa would tell her the entirety of what had happened in her own time.

"Kaya."

Kaya had already known she was coming, but it was nice to hear her voice. It was warmer than when the queen addressed anyone else, save for Anna. So much love in her tone, Kaya always made sure that it was known the love was fully reciprocated.

"Elsa." She turned to look at the queen. Elsa's eyes still seemed haunted, and Kaya didn't have to try very hard to make a concerned face. "What is it? What's happened?"

She sighed and shook her head. "I-it's a long story," She looked up to meet Kaya's gaze. "I'm sorry for running off earlier, I-"

"Elsa." Kaya held up a hand to stop her, gasping one of the queen's hands with the other. "My dear, even if it is a 'long story',' if it's upset you, then I'd like to hear about it." She stared hard into Elsa's eyes. "But if now isn't the time, I understand that too."

Elsa's eyes widened as if she'd expected to be pressed for answers, but Kaya wasn't about to add to the stress of what she knew the queen was already dealing with.

Seeing that Elsa understood, Kaya nodded and looked to Anna and back to Elsa again. "Are you two going somewhere?"

Kaya hoped that Elsa wouldn't try to dodge that question too, but Elsa eased her fear.

"We're going to the Valley of the Living Rock." Elsa paused, glancing at Anna. "We need some...answers."

Kaya understood, and she figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Do you want me to come with you?"

Surprised, Elsa stared, then gave a small, tentative smile. "Would you? I-I mean I know you're busy and-"

"Captain!"

Kaya had to try hard not to blast Thomas with her magic for simply coming in on the conversation at the wrong time.

She rolled her eyes and turned to her other lieutenant.

"Loren is waiting for your- oh, hello Queen Elsa!" He gave a short bow, turning to address Kaya again. "He says you-"

"I'm taking the day off." Not waiting for a response, she took Elsa's elbow and began to lead her away. Taking one last look at Thomas' flabbergasted expression, she said, "Have fun without me." She gave a rare smirk. "And you can tell Loren I said that."

He started to stutter a meek protest, but Kaya couldn't be bothered to listen, as she and Elsa had just about reached Anna, who was looking impatient as usual.

"Can you really do that?" Elsa asked from her place at Kaya's side.

Kaya gave a small laugh and raised an eyebrow. "Can you?"

They both knew she referred to the time that Elsa was taking away from her own work by messing around with this farce, so Elsa didn't comment, and instead simply smiled, happy that at least she had her supportive lover at her side for the first time since this mess started.

Kaya leaned to the side as they walked and pressed a tender kiss to Elsa's temple.

"Everything's going to be just fine, Elsa." Kaya said. "I promise."


"We shouldn't be here."

"Oh, they're practically family." Anna said in her usual carefree manner, stooping once again to pick up the hem of her gown.

Kaya followed close behind the two sisters as they stepped into the trolls' clearing. They'd finally "clued her in" to the whole situation, as Anna termed it, and she hoped they would indeed find some answers with the trolls.

"I meant you need to be planning your wedding."

Anna shrugged. "It's tomorrow; if there's still planning to do, then I've horribly miscalculated."

"You need to rest. It's a special day, you should enjoy it."

"I can't if my sister's upset." She called to Grand Pabbie. "I know you're here; why aren't you showing yourself? Grand Pabbie?"

One of the rocks that adorned the valley suddenly seemed to spring to life and rolled towards the trio, finally transforming into the leader of the trolls.

He shook his head as he looked at the royal sisters.

"Oh, it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding!"

Anna rolled with it. "And when have we ever been traditional?"

He caught Elsa's still-worried expression and asked what was wrong. "Something happen? You have second thoughts? He won't smell like that forever."

Kaya smirked at that. She certainly hoped so too.

"No, no, this isn't about Kristoff, it's about our parents." She presented him with the diary of the former Queen of Arendelle. "What were they really doing on that voyage?"

The troll leader read through the queen's entries before admitting that he didn't know. Elsa thanked him and took the book back before turning to leave. Kaya wasn't surprised; she knew Elsa thought this trip had been a wasted one.

They hadn't taken a handful of steps when Grand Pabbie bade them wait, and said he didn't know what they were doing, but he did know where they were going.

"Days before their journey, your parents stopped by to say they were not going to the Northern Isles. And they had a few questions about a land called Misthaven."

"What did they want there?" Elsa asked.

"They never said." He replied. "They, like many of us, had their secrets."

The old troll yawned and said something about that he needed his beauty sleep before taking his rock form once again.

Anna seemed excited about the one answer they had received, but Elsa looked more perplexed than ever, asserting that they now only had more questions.

"We have to go to Misthaven!" Anna said, as if it could really be that easy.

Elsa voiced Kaya's thoughts right away.

"No, I can't just...leave." She sighed irately. "I'm still queen, I can't just...abandon the kingdom."

"You're just making excuses." Anna lightly accused.

"Have you forgotten your last dalliance- Hans?" Elsa raised an eyebrow. "He and his twelve angry brothers are out there waiting to pounce at the first moment of weakness."

Anna gave in, but still tried to negotiate. "Okay, good excuses, but still! Let me go alone. Give me two weeks, Misthaven is a short journey! Two weeks, and I'll be right back."

Kaya had no clue how the princess had any way of knowing for sure Misthaven would be such a short journey...Yes she'd heard of it, but that was only because Orinda was immortal and occasionally imparted knowledge about far off, little-known places.

"That's just what Mother and Father said." Elsa somberly reminded Anna before dejectedly turning and walking out of the clearing.


Well at least this is something new. Hook thought as he inwardly rolled his eyes.

As the ice monster turned towards them with the ever-present grimace, Emma held her hands up in a non-threatening gesture to the creature.

"We don't want to pick a fight!" Emma shouted up to the ice creature.

This can't end well...Hook took Emma's elbow and tried to lead her away from the dangerous-looking new arrival.

"Swan..."

Emma resisted. "I just wanna see what it wants."

The creature took one more step forward before roaring in a fashion that sounded suspiciously like "go away!", knocking the pair to the ground and Emma's gun out of her hand, accidentally setting it off and startling the beast into a rage.

The pair wasted no time in turning tail and running as fast as their legs would carry them away from the old factory and, unfortunately, straight into town.

Leroy, who happened to be coming around the corner at that moment, took one look at the creature and screamed, "Evil snowman! Run!"

This, of course, sent everyone within earshot into a panic, all of them sprinting away from the unfamiliar creature.

Emma, with her expression still mostly serious, rolled her eyes, all the while thinking,

What next?


Back at the factory, Elsa watched the strangers flee from her creation and sighed in relief, though wasn't able to completely relax just yet.

A sudden wind brought what looked to be a paper with words printed on it to Elsa's attention. She picked it up and read the front page of the document.

"Mr. Gold to Marry Belle French"

Rather than the couple in the photo, it was something much smaller, and, to anyone else, much less significant that caught her eye.

She hastened down the street to see if she could find the shop.


Interestingly, the screams seemed to scare the monster into retreating into the nearby forest.

Emma, her father, David, and Hook wasted no time in following in quick pursuit of the creature.

They met Robin and company in the woods, the group promising to help bring down the creature, when out of nowhere, said creature appeared and knocked all but the newly-returned Marian to the ground, unconscious, leaving her to fend for herself.

Just as the creature is about to deal with Marian as well, it is dispatched by none other than Regina, whom everyone, including Marian herself, was sure that Regina was not only a monster, but hated Marian with a passion. Robin's official wife didn't know what to make of it, but she had always believed that there was good in everyone.

Perhaps even in the former Evil Queen would not be an exception?


Elsa made her way through town under the cover of the panic her creation had caused, in pursuit of the shop belonging to this "Mr. Gold". In that shop she suspected she'd find something that had once belonged to her.

She just hoped she wasn't too late.


"Kristoff!"

Elsa stormed into the barn, with Kaya close behind.

"Where's Anna?"

As soon as Elsa had indicated a bit earlier that she couldn't find Anna, Kaya had instinctively sought her out using the princess' heat signature. She now knew that Anna was at the docks, but for what, she couldn't say for sure, although she had a good feeling.

She figured the future Prince Consort would be as good a place as any to confirm her suspicions.

Elsa, impatient as she always was whenever gathering information pertaining to her sometimes-reckless sister, seemed to be on the verge of stamping her foot in frustration.

"Don't be coy," She called to Kristoff, whom they both knew was in the barn with them. "Answer me."

The reindeer, Sven, Kristoff's closest companion before he met Anna (even after he met her) snorted in what almost sounded like derision at Elsa's tone.

The Ice Master came from the right carrying carrots for Sven and gifted them to the reindeer as he spoke.

"Easy, Sven," He gave Elsa a knowing look. "She can't help being bossy."

The antisocial mountain man had no way of knowing Kaya happened to quite enjoy when Elsa was feeling particularly bossy. She smirked at the thought.

Unfortunately, Elsa wasn't in the mood for any sort of game, not when her sister seemed to be missing.

"I'm not bossy." She denied. "I'm the queen."

"Isn't that the queen's job? Bossing people around?" Kristoff said in an obvious attempt at a redirection of attention.

Luckily, her Elsa wasn't to be deterred. "Don't change the subject Kristoff, where's Anna?"

He shrugged. "Isn't she in the palace?"

If she were, would we even be here? Orinda chimed in.

It was scary how accurate the demon's line of thought was sometimes, as Elsa voiced the exact same logic not moments later.

Kristoff had noticeably started to figure out he couldn't keep this charade up for much longer, and pulled his cap off nervously.

"U-um, well..." He started. "She had some- ah- errands to run."

The fool then went on to stammer out a blatant lie about Anna thinking they needed more frosting for the wedding cake. Neither Elsa nor Kaya bought that for a moment, and Kaya was starting to suspect that Kristoff not only knew where Anna had gone and when she'd left; he was also stalling.

"Talk, reindeer man. What is going on here?"

Finally, we're getting somewhere.

"Wedding details. I'm just making sure-" Kristoff started to lie again, but Elsa cut him off as it dawned on her.

"That she wasn't followed..." She sighed. "You're trying to delay me."

He made one last ditch attempt at stalling the queen and captain by asking if they wanted to see the flower arrangements.

"Where did she go, Kristoff?" As she watched Kristoff sigh, she voiced both hers and Kaya's suspicions. "Misthaven?"

He finally gave up the act and nodded. "Okay, yes, but she's doing it for you."

"When?"

"She booked passage on a ship that's set to leave..."

Right now.

"Well, any moment now."

Kaya inwardly cursed. What a mess.

Seeing the dismayed look on Elsa's face, Kristoff spoke again. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie, I was just trying to help."

Kaya heard Sven snort again in response to Kristoff's comment, but then her attention was captured by Elsa leaving the barn, supposedly to head to the harbor.


Mr. Gold, better known as Rumplestiltskin, or "The Dark One" in the Enchanted Forest, stared contemplatively at the cylinder-shaped box he had come across while on his honeymoon with the love of his life, Belle. They were in a mansion that had an unknown history as to whom its past owner had been.

Whoever they were, they certainly had interesting taste. He thought.

Deciding to test his theory, as to find out if this newly-found object was what he suspected it was, he loosed a cloth to his right that was wrapped around the object that was both the key to his power, and the bane of his existence.

The Dark One's Dagger.

With the ability to control his nearly infinite power and the sole object able to effectively kill him, it was easily one of Gold's most prized possessions.

Second only to Belle, or so he liked to believe.

Waving the dagger smoothly over the top of the box, he watched in rapture as the magic from the dagger forced the box to reveal it's true form, which was what looked to be a wizard's hat with an image of a galaxy full of stars swirling around inside it.

He could not hold back what he knew would appear to be a sinister grin, and rightly so.

This is it.


Freezing the lock to Gold's shop to get in should have bothered Elsa, as it meant she was entering a place that belonged to someone else, but she was too fixated on the notion of finding her sister to pay much attention to that fact.

She looked around the shop and was quickly able to find the object she was looking for, the object that had once been hers.


"Elsa, wait!"

Kaya, Elsa and Kristoff arrived at the harbor just in time to watch the ship carrying Anna out of Arendelle sail past the fjord's walls.

"It's too late." Kristoff said, pointing out the obvious.

"We have to go after her."

"No."

Elsa, being a monarch, was understandably unused to being told 'no'.

She turned to Kristoff sharply, snapping, "Are you really saying 'no' to your queen?"'

"I'm saying 'no' to my future sister." Elsa gave him a look. "In-law." He sheepishly corrected before continuing. "For good reason. We both love Anna, we both know her. She will be fine."

Elsa sighed. "She didn't have to do this alone."

"Yes, she did." Kristoff argued. "You told Anna- and you're right- you're the queen." He looked away knowingly, seeming almost embarrassed. "We all remember well what happened the last time you left..."

"Well, why didn't you go with her?" Elsa asked, looking forlornly at the retreating ship.

Kristoff sighed. "She didn't want me to...She thought I was needed here."

"For what?"

Kristoff looked at Elsa. "She didn't want you to be alone."

How easily you're forgotten, my dear. Orinda cackled, although both she and her host knew that wasn't what the princess had intended.

Elsa seemed placated by Kristoff's statement, but only just.

"She'll be fine." Kristoff said again. "I believe in her; you should too. Because she doesn't give up on the people she loves...And she always succeeds."

"She also sometimes acts before she thinks." Elsa argued. "This place could be dangerous. What do we even know about this 'Misthaven'? How have I never heard of it?"

"You might know it better by what the inhabitants call it."

Elsa cocked her head. "What's that?"

"The Enchanted Forest."


Kristoff eventually wandered off after watching the ship disappear with both Elsa and Kaya, leaving the pair alone by the docks.

Kaya could still feel the stress radiating in waves off her sometimes-high-strung lover. She knew there would be no rest for either of them until the younger, reckless princess was safe and sound back in Arendelle.

"I'll go with her."

Elsa snapped her head in Kaya's direction.

Kaya took a step forward and clasped both of Elsa's hands in her own.

"Kristoff's right; you can't leave Arendelle yourself and we both know Anna is too stubborn to be talked into coming back before she finds the information she's looking for."

Elsa looked away. She hated to admit it, but what she said was true.

"Loren and Thomas can manage the castle's security for two weeks while I accompany your sister...If she won't come home willingly, there's no sense in dragging her back-she'll just run off again."

Also true.

Elsa still seemed reluctant to give her consent; as desperately as she wanted her sister safe and back home, she also didn't want to put yet another person she cared about in harm's way, even though she knew Kaya could more than handle herself.

Kaya switched tactics.

"Elsa...You spoke of marriage." Kaya sighed. Elsa's eyes widened; she didn't think Kaya was going to bring that topic up again so soon. "I'm also assuming you'll want to raise children in some fashion...One day."

Elsa blushed, but she nodded her assent for Kaya to continue.

"This is part of the process." She explained. "Sometimes a child-" She nodded towards the already-disappeared ship. "Simply will not listen to reason, and they have to learn the truth the hard way...their own way."

Kaya squeezed Elsa's hands in hers. "Part of being a good parent is allowing the child to find their own way in a controlled, safe environment, sometimes where the child has no idea there's a safety net to begin with...Am I making sense?"

Elsa nodded, her heart infinitely warmed by the idea of what a wonderful mother Kaya could make...if such a thing were possible for them.

But they'd worry about that later.

"Please be safe." She finally acquiesced. "And bring yourselves home in one piece."

Kaya made a deep, almost mocking bow. "By your leave, my queen. Don't do anything reckless while I'm gone, now, understand?"

Elsa smiled for what felt like the first time in weeks. She leaned forward to place a quick, gentle kiss on Kaya's cheek, wrapping her arms around her lover's neck, enjoying her warm embrace as if for the last time. Kaya returned the embrace, briefly squeezing her beloved's shoulders once before releasing her and stepping back to the edge of the dock.

She faced the harbor, focusing on her destination for a moment before she turned around halfway to say with a small smile,

"Don't worry, Elsa, I'll bring her home safe." She nodded once more. "I swear it."

With a flash of bright, fiery orange, Kaya took off into the sky, flying swiftly to catch up with the ship, leaving Elsa feeling more than a little lonely and worried, but more assured of her sister's safety while she was away now that her lover was on her way.


Elsa picked the snowflake charm up by its chain and watched as the light from the streetlamps outside made only the stone in the center glitter faintly, the rest of the charm was so old and rusted.

"Don't worry, Anna," Elsa said to herself in a shaky voice. "I will find you."