A/N: Just so you know, I added a few more paragraphs at the end of the previous chapter. If you're already a follower of this story and have already read Chapter 3, I suggest you read those before continuing; otherwise, the beginning of this chapter might seem a bit confusing. If you're new to this story, pay no mind to the message above. Enjoy the chapter!
Elsa.
Jack opened his eyes slowly. His vision was blurry, almost as if a white veil had been placed upon them. He couldn't remember what had happened, and he couldn't concentrate on anything but that single word.
Elsa.
He struggled to stand up. His head hurt more badly than the rest of his body, but as far as he could tell, there were no broken bones—and frankly, he would've been surprised if there were. After all, spirits didn't have bones to break. He looked around him and realized that the white veil was actually fog. He was standing on top of a mountain. Then he remembered what had happened. Instinctively, he diverted his gaze towards the North.
Elsa!
He had no way of knowing it, but he believed something bad had happened to her. The two events—her coronation and his sudden loss of strength and power—were too close together for them not to be connected somehow. He attempted to summon the wind, and the latter raised him above the mountain peak instantly. Satisfied, he took flight, heading to Arendelle.
He soon regretted not making sure that he could stay in the air for longer periods of time, though. The wind would constantly stop obeying him, causing him to fall several times. Fortunately, he managed to break his fall each time, ending up hovering mere inches above the ground before he resumed his flight.
Of course, the journey took longer than usual, and by the time he reached the North, his powers were nearly gone. It was as if they were slowly being taken away from him. He had to land on top of another mountain to take a break… but he lost his breath when he saw in dread the landscape around him.
It was mid-July, and yet, everything was covered in snow. Winter had come to almost every country in the Northern side of the Earth.
There was not a single patch of land that didn't look white. Every tree, every lake and river, and even the ocean, were buried under ice and snow. The sun did shine as bright and felt as warm as it should during summer, but not even its rays could melt the snow, testifying to the supernatural nature of this weather. Jack made an effort to fly as high as he could and found that most of Europe was already under a huge white circle that was slowly expanding to cover everything in its path—and the more it grew, the weaker he felt.
He had to find Elsa.
From what he could reckon, Arendelle was, unsurprisingly, at the very center of the circle, so Jack headed there. His first stop was the castle. There, he found evidence of Elsa's magic in a fountain. Its water was frozen in a rather disturbing way, reflecting Elsa's fear. There was an ice blast at the entrance of the castle as well. However, after spending nearly an hour searching for her all over the castle and even throughout the town, he came to the conclusion that she was long gone. So, where was she?
He took flight again, rising above the frozen fjord, to try and find any trace in the vicinity—a trail of ice or snow or anything remotely similar—that could tell him where Elsa had fled to. Unfortunately, if there was a trail somewhere, it was probably buried under the freshly fallen snow, which only served to frustrate him even more.
Suddenly, a flash of light in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned to look at a large mountain north of Arendelle. Something was reflecting the last rays of the setting sun near its peak—and mountains usually didn't do that. Could it be…?
Without hesitation, he glided across the small kingdom, nearly crashing into a few snow-capped trees a couple of times when the wind ceased to help him. When he was close to the mountain, though, it wasn't because of the wind failing him that he almost fell to the ground but because of the utter shock that came with the sight of what stood tall and magnificent near the top.
He had been right to guess that it was ice what was reflecting the sunrays, and also to assume that Elsa probably was behind it. Still, this went beyond his wildest imagination… and he'd already seen this once before, albeit as nothing more than a drawing.
It was Elsa's Ice Palace.
Jack had to blink a few times and shake his head to snap out of it. How he had managed to stay in the air during his trance, he didn't know. But now that he was back to normal—or at least as normal as a soon-to-be powerless spirit could be—he needed to focus on the matter at hand, so he flew towards the imposing structure and landed on the only balcony it had. He opened the doors and walked inside Elsa's masterpiece of engineering.
The first thing he noticed was that there was no furniture, so unless Elsa had built this place a few hours ago, this couldn't be her personal room. Maybe she was resting elsewhere or building more rooms on the tower behind this one. Her absence from this room wasn't what troubled him the most, though, but the way the walls looked like they were cracking from the inside out. It reminded him of what had happened in the throne room all those years ago, when all the beauty of the winter wonderland she'd created had been covered in a layer of frost that even destroyed her snowman. In other words, she was still frightened, meaning she probably knew of the winter she had unleashed everywhere.
Aside from that, this place was breathtaking and pretty much perfect, down to the last detail. Just like in the drawing, the room was centered around the hexagonal shape of a large snowflake that made up the floor. Along with a grand ice chandelier that decorated the roof and was also shaped like a snowflake, it illuminated the whole place, seemingly irradiating its own light. True, the purple-red hue gave the room a rather creepy atmosphere, but it didn't take away the fact that it was glowing on its own. What Elsa had accomplished here was astonishing, especially when considering that she had done it in spite of her fear.
"Elsa?" Jack called out. "Elsa, I know you're here. I need to talk to you. It's important!"
Silence.
"Elsa!" he called out again at the top of his lungs. If there ever was a right time for him to be heard, it was now. The saying was true, though—be careful what you wish for.
"Oh, don't waste your breath," he heard a voice echoing throughout the ice room. "She can't hear us, you know."
Jack blenched, not because someone had actually talked to him for the first time ever, but because of how haunting the voice that had spoken was. "W-who are you?" he asked, trying to conceal his uneasiness.
"Who am I? I think the real question is, who are you?" the voice countered. Jack looked all around him, holding his staff defensively even though he didn't have the strength to fight. "You can lower that stick. I know you're no warrior, Jack Frost."
"I thought you didn't know me," Jack replied sarcastically, raising an eyebrow at the mention of his name.
"I never said that. I just voiced your thoughts—your fear," the voice hissed. "Because you are afraid, aren't you? You fear you'll never know who you are or why you came into this world. You know that there is a huge possibility that you might spend all eternity without ever learning if you have a purpose greater than simply bringing winter to the world—and it terrifies you. Even if as a spirit you don't require sleep like humans do, you can choose to close your eyes and dream or to stay awake all the time. You choose the latter because the few times you've attempted to sleep, that fear has plagued your dreams and become your worst nightmare."
Aside from the fact that the voice knew of Jack's fears, the way in which it seemed to relish speaking of them sent shivers down the spirit's spine. "H-how can you possibly know all that?" he asked, not even bothering to deny any of it.
"Because that's my job—to see into the souls of every living being in this world, learn of their deepest fears…" The echoing voice began fading away, only for Jack to hear it again, loud and clear, right next to him. "…and turn them into nightmares!"
Jack jumped, startled, and spun around in time to see a shadow vanish into the ice floor. He waved his staff around, hitting the air, and yelled, "Who are you?!"
The voice—the shadow—let out a demonic laugh. "Oh, I've been waiting for the moment when we'd get to see each other's faces for a very long time. After all, it's not a proper meeting between two people if only one of them sees the other." The echo faded again, becoming clear once more when it spoke again behind Jack. "The name is Pitch Black, Nightmare King and Lord of the Shadows."
Jack turned around and found himself staring into a pair of silver-golden eyes—eyes filled with rage and hatred and devilry. "Pitch Black," he repeated in a low voice, taking a step back to have a better look at this character that definitely lived up to his name. Black hair, black garment, ashen skin… he was scary, indeed. "What do you want from me?"
"From you?" Pitch chuckled, walking around the Winter Spirit with his hands clasped behind his back. "What, you think you're suddenly so important just because I can see you and talk to you? Don't flatter yourself. This meeting is nothing more than a mere coincidence, though I must concede I expected to see you here at some point. Nah, it's not you I'm here for. It's Elsa I really want."
Jack's grip on his staff softened for a moment. "Elsa?" he said, unable to mask his concern.
"Well, not exactly her, of course. You see, I don't just sense other people's fears. I feed on them. I depend on fear to stay strong. Now, the fear of a grown-up is good, but it's not tasty enough. The fear of a child, on the other hand, is delicious and quite… nutritious. But Elsa's fear, oh, her fear is like a feast!"
"How come?"
"You're smart. You tell me."
"Spare me the effort."
The Nightmare King stared at Jack, challenging him. The Winter Spirit held his gaze, not willing to play along. Eventually, Pitch relented. "Fine, I'll tell you myself. Elsa is more than just a fearful young girl. She's a source of fear. She instills fear in the hearts of everyone around her. Even her parents were afraid of her powers."
"That's not true," Jack countered. "They were never afraid of Elsa."
"I said 'afraid of her powers'. That doesn't necessarily mean they were afraid of her, but they did fear she would never be accepted by anyone if her secret became known. So, in a way, their fear was related to her—and they were right, too. You should've seen everyone's faces on the night of her coronation! All those people scared to death when her powers were accidentally revealed. Even now, every last man, woman, and child in Arendelle still fear for their lives."
A terrible thought occurred to Jack after hearing of Elsa's coronation. "When did that happen?" he wondered out loud.
"Oh, that was several days ago. You think this much snow fell over half a continent in just one night?"
"Days?!" Jack began panting. He had been unconscious for days? It had felt like hours. How could he have let this happen? To hell with his duties; he should've been by Elsa's side that day. Maybe he could've helped somehow.
"Ah, and there it is—your own fear, also caused by her," Pitch grinned. "You may not be afraid of Elsa's powers, but like her parents, you fear for her. Not only that, but you also fear you'll never get the chance to help her because she can't see you, no matter how hard you try. And to think you almost managed to achieve your goal a couple of times."
"What do you m…?" Jack began, but then he understood. All those times he'd thought of Elsa's fear as unnatural… as if something or someone were fueling her fear. "You…"
"'Me'," Pitch mimicked mockingly. "Of course it was me! Who do you think was there all the time to influence her dreams and thoughts? Every single time you tried to use your power to positively influence her magic, I already had worked hard to convince her that it was all her fault and that she would never control it."
Jack felt a sudden urge to beat this so-called King of Nightmares to silence, but he refrained himself from doing so. Instead, realizing where he was standing, he smirked and said, "Then you've failed. All by herself, she has discovered the beauty in her winter magic. She has found a way to control it, and this Palace is proof of it."
"Is that so?" Pitch replied sardonically. "In that case, her freezing poor Anna's heart was something she did consciously."
Jack lost his breath. Elsa had done what? "She… hurt Anna?"
"Not 'hurt'. Kill. Soon enough, anyway. From what I understand, a frozen heart is as close to a death sentence as it gets. Until then, I shall revel in her fear as well. Because she's afraid, oh so afraid, that she might die without having been able to help her sister. I suppose she and you are similar in that way… except for the dying part, of course."
Jack closed his fists around his staff so tightly he believed it would snap. He was furious, not just because this demon had corrupted Elsa's magic through fear, but also because he hadn't been there to prevent—no. He had been there. He had stood there by Elsa's side every day of every winter since the accident. Even during summer—at least whenever he could during the season—he kept visiting her. In a way, he had fought, which was more than could be said of this coward who only knew to hide in the shadows. And to rescue Elsa from Pitch Black's clutches, he would fight this time too… even if she couldn't see him do so.
"Enjoy it while you can, Black, because it won't last long. Now that I know who I'm fighting against, I'll do everything in my power to stop you, and soon you'll lose your source of fear."
Pitch opened his mouth to reply, but something apparently caught his attention, because he turned to look outside through the open balcony doors before speaking again. "You're right. This will be ending soon. Such a shame… but the execution should be something interesting to watch nonetheless."
Jack frowned. "Execution?"
"Didn't I say? Elsa's curse of eternal winter has seeded enough fear in the hearts of some of the townspeople to make them feel compelled to end it in any way possible. Needless to say, one of their options is to eliminate it from its source. And now it seems like they're choosing that option."
"They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't kill their own queen."
"Oh, yes, they will. In fact, there's a mob at the doorstep right now. Well, more like an army, actually."
And as soon as Pitch spoke those words, a loud roar pierced the air. Jack hurried to the balcony and saw a sizable amount of Royal Guards, led by a man with sideburns dressed in a grey overcoat, in front of the Palace. The only thing standing between them and the entrance was a small chasm—and a gigantic snowman guarding an ice staircase that linked both sides of the chasm together. The soldiers were attacking the snowman, but the only thing their spears and arrows seemed to accomplish was to anger it and cause it to grow ice spikes all over its body.
The balcony doors then shut by themselves, as if the Palace could sense the danger and was going into lockdown. Jack, who was still outside, tried to open them, to no avail. With no other choice left, he walked through them to find that the room walls had recovered their pristine appearance, and snowflake beneath the Winter Spirit's feet, as well as the walls and chandelier, had changed color. The purple-red light had been replaced by something more closely similar to amber. Whatever it meant, it probably wasn't good.
"Well, it was good while it lasted," Jack heard the echoing voice of Pitch Black say. The spirit turned around but the dark entity was nowhere to be seen anymore. "I'll see you around, Jack Frost."
Jack clenched his teeth. There was nothing he could do about Pitch Black, and frankly, he didn't care right now. He needed to find Elsa, if anything to keep her safe from these people. She had to be somewhere in the Palace.
Just as he was about to go downstairs, Elsa ran into the room, going right through Jack, as usual. The latter barely had time to react before two men caught up with her, crossbows in hand. Their uniforms were different from the ones donned by the Royal Guard of Arendelle, so Jack assumed they were foreign. And they didn't seem moved by Elsa's plea to let her live. Just like Black had said, they were going to execute her. There would be neither trial nor defense in her favor. It would be murder, plain and simple.
Only that a certain Winter Spirit wouldn't let them.
One of the two men had already raised his crossbow and taken aim at Elsa. Time seemed to slow down when the arrow was launched from the weapon and began its short flight towards Elsa's head. Jack was in the way, but him being an ethereal entity, it just went through him. He was expecting that to happen anyway, and the moment the fletching of the arrow left his body, he spun around and waved his staff in front of Elsa, creating an ice barrier that trapped the projectile—missing Elsa by less than an inch—at the same time that she raised her hands defensively and closed her eyes.
The effort took a serious toll in him. He fell to his knees, weakened. He knew he had used most of whatever winter power he had left to save Elsa from just one arrow and that the two men had plenty more, but it didn't matter. Maybe she couldn't see him, but she could see his work, even if she always believed it was hers. That was exactly what Jack needed right now. Pitch Black was right about one thing: Elsa was afraid. Too afraid, in fact, to use her powers in self-defense. However, if she could see that not only was she more than capable of using them to that end, but also that her survival was dependent upon it, perhaps she'd find the courage to fight back on her own.
He was right. As soon as she reopened her eyes and saw the arrowhead, she seemed to realize that these ruffians would have no mercy on her.
"Stay away!" she exclaimed, using her own magic this time to create more ice barriers between her and the two men as they split up and flanked her, trying to get a better angle to shoot. They didn't appear fazed by her magic, but Jack knew that the Nightmare King's words were true. Fear was moving these people to destroy that which they feared. They were mustering courage from their fear, and that was what Elsa needed to do.
"Elsa, if there's ever been a good time for you to listen to me, it's now," he said, trying to cup her face between his hands. They went through her cheeks and inside her head, but he couldn't care less now. "I know you don't want to hurt others with your powers. That's why you isolated yourself for so many years—why you came here, away from your people. But if you don't use them now, you'll die at the hands of these men!"
"Maybe that would be better. I would never again hurt anyone else… like I did Anna."
Jack's jaw dropped, his trembling hands nearly letting go of Elsa's face. She'd heard him. She'd actually heard him, and he was absolutely certain of it. Moreover, he'd heard her speak… yet her lips hadn't moved. He was hearing her thoughts, like some sort of psychic link had been formed between the two of them when his hands went inside her head. He couldn't believe this. Thirteen years of trying to find a way to communicate with Elsa, and this was all he needed to do?! How come that had never occurred to him in the first place?
Now, this is not the time to kick yourself, Jack, he thought. There were more pressing matters, like convincing Elsa to deal with these—
He suddenly noticed that both Elsa and the two thugs were moving more slowly. Very slowly, in fact. Almost like they weren't moving at all, as if time had slowed down again. Unlike what had happened with the arrow he'd stopped earlier, however, this didn't feel like it was just his perception, so he decided to make a small test. He pulled away for a couple of seconds then stuck his hands inside Elsa's head again.
In those few seconds, time had elapsed normally. And now, once more, it had nearly stopped.
This experience had gone from 'unique' to 'miraculous'. She could hear him clearly and she had the time to do so, despite the precarious situation she was in—something he was grateful for, even if she couldn't see him yet. He needed to make the most of this opportunity, and he would.
"Elsa, what you did to your sister and the winter you unleashed wasn't your fault. You lost control. It was an accident. But you can fix it—all of it."
"No, I can't. I can't control the curse."
"That's because you still think of it as a curse. Elsa, your powers are a blessing. You need to embrace them as such. You can do things no one else can do. Just look where you're standing! You built this palace from scratch!"
"I built it thinking that I could live free here and be who I am without hurting anybody. But I was a fool." Her voice sounded tearful and hopeless.
"No, you're not," Jack countered. "You are smart and talented and brilliant. More than that, you are a good person. You can be free without having to give up your powers, and you'd make a wonderful queen, too. But first you have to let them see that. How will you do that from the grave, eh? Please, Elsa, I'm begging you. You must fight for your life. Don't let them kill you. Don't give up like this. Don't…" He felt a lump in his throat. "Don't leave me alone. You're all I have, you mean a lot to me, and I… I couldn't stand watching you die."
Even with time being slowed down, he saw the beginning of a frown forming in Elsa's face. "Who are you?"
He smiled with hope. Whether she believed that it was her own conscience speaking to her before, he couldn't know. But now he'd finally caught her attention. Maybe, if that little girl he'd met all those years ago was still there, he could use that to his advantage.
"Live, and I'll tell you," he said, and he let go of her.
As time went back to normal, Elsa's frown became complete. She looked back and forth between the two soldiers surrounding her, but it also seemed like she was searching the room for someone else. Jack's heart beat rapidly. At long last, she was aware of his existence.
The soldier to Elsa's left raised his crossbow and took aim. Fortunately, she had just turned to look that way—and Jack saw how her eyes became filled with resolve and a renewed desire to stay alive. Unhesitatingly, she shot a gust of ice magic which created, not a barrier like she'd been using to prevent them from firing, but a whole lot of icicles that literally pinned the man by his uniform to the wall behind him, one of the icicles threatening to pierce him through the neck if he tried something funny.
"That's it!" Jack cheered. "Show them what you've got!"
The second soldier, who at first was left in shock, quickly recovered and tried to unload his weapon at Elsa, but she already had caught a glimpse of him. Without losing sight of the attacker on the wall, and before the man could pull the trigger, she shot another gust of magic that sent the weapon flying away from his hands. He tried to run away, but Elsa cut off his escape by creating two more walls of ice to his left and right. She added a larger ice wall and began pushing the soldier back towards the balcony doors with it.
"That's the way! They'll think it twice before…" Jack began celebrating, but when the ice wall effectively left the man out of combat and with no more places to flee to, and yet she kept pushing, he got worried. "Elsa, I-I think you've made your point."
The balcony doors shattered and gave way, and it became clear to Jack that Elsa would not stop pushing until the soldier fell to the chasm. Obviously she still couldn't hear him through conventional means, so he put his hands inside Elsa's head again. "Elsa, what are you doing? You've already beat them."
"It's the only way they'll leave me alone," he heard the angered reply.
"No, no, no, this is not what I meant when I told you to fight," Jack pleaded. "You need to show them mercy so that—"
"Did they show me any mercy? They need to understand that I'm a danger to everyone. This will send them a message."
"That's right, my dear Elsa," another voice whispered. "Kill him and make them fear you like they should!"
Jack recognized the voice. He pulled back and found Pitch Black standing in front of him, with his hands also inside Elsa's head.
"Did you really think it would be so easy, Jack?" he said with an evil smirk. "Well, guess what? You're not the only one who can pull off this little tri—"
The Nightmare King didn't get to finish his phrase when Jack charged against him and tackled him. "Leave her alone!" he yelled, landing a good punch on the demon's face.
"And be deprived of the best food supply I've had in ages?" Pitch grunted, stopping another punch with his hand and struggling to get Jack off him. "In your dreams!"
"Queen Elsa!" someone else shouted from the far end of the room. "Don't be the monster they fear you are!"
Both Jack and Pitch stopped fighting and looked in the direction where the voice had come from. The Royal Guards and their leader were standing there. Pitch let out an exasperated breath. "Oh, not him."
Whoever 'him' was, his words certainly had an effect on Elsa. She turned back and, realizing what she was doing, ceased her attack and let her guard down. Jack looked at her, bewildered. "Seriously? You ignore me, but you do listen to him? Who is him, any—"
He flinched when he heard the sound of a crossbow being unloaded, but Elsa wasn't hit. The chandelier, however, began falling from the ceiling. She gasped when she noticed it and ran away as fast as she could, but she slipped and fell.
"ELSA!" Jack cried, his view blocked by the sheer amount of ice chunks. He stood and hurried to the same spot where most of the Royal Guards were gathering. Elsa was lying on the floor, unmoving. The man with the grey cloak also joined the Guards.
"She's still breathing, sir," one of them said, inspecting her. Jack let out a breath of relief.
"Good. Get her on a horse, carefully. We will take her back to Arendelle," the leader ordered. Then, to the rest of the Guards helping the two foreign thugs out of their respective ice traps, he said, "As soon as those men are safe, tie them up. I will not be the one who allowed the Queen of Arendelle to be murdered in cold blood. She's our best chance to stop this winter. Only after she does, and if the people so demand it, she will have a fair trial. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Prince Hans," the Guards replied.
While they picked Elsa from the ground and left the room, Jack looked around. Pitch had vanished without a trace again, but this time, the Winter Spirit would not be fooled. For all his words of resignation, the Nightmare King had stayed to watch the fight, and the moment he'd seen that Jack was succeeding in helping her, he'd seized the opportunity and turned her courage into fear—a fear she'd then channeled into anger and hatred. Jack wouldn't let that happen again.
He followed the Guards carrying Elsa all the way outside and to the other side of the chasm. The only thing left of the enormous snowman was his left foot. The Guards' leader—Prince Hans—joined them a few moments later, followed by the Guards holding the two thugs. Jack decided it would be better to follow them on foot. Not only was he in no condition to attempt flying, but he would also be able to stay closer to Elsa. And so, once they were all in their horses, they began their journey back to Arendelle, unaware of the invisible companion walking beside the horse that carried the Queen of Arendelle… and of the evil creature lurking in the shadows.
"You work for Pitch, don't you?"
"Who?"
"Don't play dumb with me!"
"Jamie, I really have no idea what you're talking about…"
It wasn't until several hours later that Elsa finally woke up—in a cold, dark cell, with her hands in shackles. Hans had ordered the best blacksmith in Arendelle to make those as quickly as possible, and to make sure that they covered Elsa's hands completely, the second he had returned to Arendelle. It was a precautionary measure, according to him, but Jack still thought of it as something brutal and inhumane, coming from the man who'd saved her.
The Winter Spirit watched from a corner as the young queen slowly came to and sat on the bed—though 'bed' was too nice a term for the stone bench she'd been left lying on. Elsa looked around wearily until her eyes became fixed on the window. Then she jumped from the bench and rushed up to it, but the short chains didn't let her get far. She had to find a position where they wouldn't get in the way before she could look outside.
"Oh, no. What have I done?" her whispered, devastated cry echoed throughout the cell.
Jack shook his head, frustrated. He wanted to comfort her, but she could only hear him when they were psychically linked… and he didn't want to attempt doing that a second time. It had seemed perfect at first, but now he was having second thoughts. Going inside her mind like that, it felt like he was invading her, forcing her to listen to him. It had helped her back there at the Palace, sure, but if he kept doing it over and over, how was he any better than Pitch Black?
Oh, he knew that the dark spirit was present in the cell, too. Though he couldn't see him, he also was sure that he had been messing with her dreams while she was unconscious. For all he knew, he had kept her in that state longer than she should've been. She couldn't have hit her head that hard when she fell at the Palace, could she? No, Pitch had been doing something to her all the way back from the mountain—and knowing it only made Jack all the angrier. He was powerless, in every sense of the word. He didn't have the strength to fight him, and even if he did, how do you fight someone you can't see?
The sound of a key being turned made both Jack and Elsa turn to look at the door. It was Hans.
"Why did you bring me here?" Elsa demanded.
"I couldn't just let them kill you."
"But I'm a danger to Arendelle. Get Anna!"
"Anna has not returned," Hans told her. Clearly concerned, Elsa looked outside again while Hans continued. "If you would just stop the winter—bring back summer… please."
"Don't you see? I can't." The regret and despair in her face broke Jack's heart. "You have to tell them to let me go."
Hans seemed disheartened, but he replied, "I will do what I can."
Jack heard Pitch's distant scoff. "No, he won't."
"Is there something you want to share, Black?" he asked, irritated.
"The dashing prince of the Southern Isles here has his own agenda," the echoing voice of the Nightmare King replied while Hans walked away. "He wants the throne of Arendelle and is planning to marry Anna to get it. The last thing he needs is a sorceress queen standing in his way, but he can't just kill her. That's why he saved her at the Palace. He acts like a noble hero until he finds the right excuse to get rid of her—which Elsa just gave him by telling him that she can't undo what she has done. In other words…"
"Execution," Jack concluded for him, watching how the foreign prince closed the door behind him after leaving. The Winter Spirit stared at Elsa thoughtfully for a moment. Then, as soon as he heard the lock, he turned around, and quickly touching both shackles with the tip of his staff to cover them with frost, he determined, "No one is going to harm her, not while I'm still here."
"Ach, you really are melodramatic, aren't you?" Pitch mocked.
Jack didn't even acknowledge him. He had every reason to distrust Pitch. For instance, he had lied about Hans and the Royal Guards going after Elsa. They had been chattering all the way during the journey back from the mountain, and from what Jack had heard, they had been looking for Anna. Hans had even insisted that 'no harm was to come to the Queen'.
On the other hand, Pitch had looked pretty upset about Hans showing up at the Palace. So, what if his lie to Jack had been intended to make him fear for Elsa's life—feeding Pitch in the process—but in the end had turned out to be true?
Come to think of it, how convenient that the arrow that had missed Elsa had cut through the ice the chandelier was hanging from. Elsa had been lucky not to be crushed by the massive ice structure as it fell, but if Hans was after her blood…
The fiend could still be lying, of course. Jack couldn't be certain of Hans' true allegiance unless he left the cell and investigated on his own, but he wouldn't Elsa alone with Pitch Black anymore, and without more information, waiting idly for something to happen would be gambling with Elsa's life, something he wasn't willing to do.
In any case, she wasn't safe in Arendelle. She needed to flee the kingdom, but first Jack had to set her free, thus his efforts to freeze the shackles. Perhaps the locks could somehow be broken with ice, and while he no longer had the power to do it by himself, Elsa did. If she could just realize that…
"Just give up already," Pitch insisted from the shadows. "It's over."
"That hasn't stopped you from trying to influence her mind and dreams a bit more," Jack countered without getting distracted from his work.
"Force of habit. It's in my nature, and it helps pass the time until she gives her last breath. But believe me when I tell you that I have given up. There is nothing I can do about it. Like I said before, it was good while it lasted."
Jack took a moment to rest. Even conjuring frost was turning out to be more and more exhausting by the minute. He couldn't do this on his own, and Elsa—who seemed to be more concerned about Anna than anything else, judging from the way she kept staring outside—wasn't cooperating. He needed help, but he couldn't exactly ask the only other spirit in the cell for it. All he cared about was feeding on the fear Elsa's powers seeded in the hearts of…
Of course.
"What if it didn't have to end?" he shouted. "What if we could do something about it?"
"We? As in, together? So you can save her and be her hero while I still lose? No, thank you. I'd rather save my strength for later."
"I'm not asking you to let me save her soul," Jack argued. "Just her life."
There was silence for a moment. Then, Jack heard the reply clear as day—right behind him. "I'm listening."
Jack smirked. Pitch had caught his drift and finally come out of the shadows. Now it was time to see how badly he needed Elsa.
"You want to keep your… food supply," he said, turning around to face him. "I want to keep her safe from you. But Hans wants to kill her so he can have her throne. Now, which one of us would be easier for you to deal with in the long run?"
"You're proposing a truce," Pitch said, a trace of amusement in his voice. Then, more seriously, he answered, "Fair enough. The enemy of my enemy is my friend… for now, at least. What exactly do you want to do?"
"Revert what you've done to Elsa. Take away the fear you've seeded in her heart and mind so she can gather the courage she needs to—"
Pitch began laughing manically before Jack could finish his sentence. "It doesn't work that way, kid. I induce fear. I can't 'revert' it nor take it back. It's not in my nature."
That statement only confirmed what Jack suspected—and now that he knew for sure, it was time to put the real offer on the table. "Then stop influencing her. Just for a while, that's all I'm asking. Let me try and help her find the courage to use her powers to break out from here. Then, once she's escaped, you can come back and make her feel fear again. Who knows? Maybe you can convince her to cross the frozen ocean and flee to an island where no one can find her."
His own words were making him sick. He knew he was playing Pitch's game—and the broad, ironic grin on his face told Jack he was enjoying it—but he had no other choice. He'd already figured out that Pitch was causing Elsa to fear for Anna. Even if he was simply doing it out of habit as he so claimed, it was distracting her. Without Pitch around to fuel that fear, Elsa would probably stop thinking about it so much. Only then would Jack be able to get her to focus on escaping.
"Go on, then," the Nightmare King replied eventually. "Do what you must. Be the hero. I will not interfere." He began walking towards the darkest corner of the cell, but then he looked back. "Although, if you do succeed, I will come back for her. Don't you dare think I'll let you win so easily."
Jack looked at Pitch menacingly. "Neither will I. We are enemies, and we will always be. But not today."
Pitch scoffed and disappeared in the shadows. Jack stood there a while longer, making sure that he didn't return. Not that he could know if he did, but he stayed there nonetheless. Then, when Elsa finally looked away from the window and stared at the shackles, the Winter Spirit went back to work.
"Come one, Elsa. Let's get you out of here."
A/N: I didn't want to apologize earlier for the delay because I figured you'd prefer to jump into the chapter right away, but now that it's over, well… apologies for the delay. I wished to update sooner, but I couldn't quite get this chapter right. Originally, it was intended to end with the battle scene at the Palace, but I thought it would be a bit anticlimactic to just leave it there. So I kept writing. The chapter ended up being longer than anticipated—thus the need to move the first four paragraphs to the last part of Chapter 3—but I suppose you deserved it after such a long wait. I hope you liked it.
Ghostpen94: Aww, thank you! I'm sorry I didn't update earlier, but I hope it was worth the wait.
Serenity2893: You're right, that's what the switch was meant for. Don't worry, most of the story takes place in the past, so it won't happen too often. Thanks for the review and kind words, and you're welcome! ;)
DocSlendy: I will, I promise. Thanks!
WEast: It was definitely running through Jack's head. The lyrics were his thoughts or his words to Elsa. As for Lizette… you'll just have to continue reading to unravel the mystery. Thanks for your review!
I'll do my best to have Chapter 5 ready ASAP, but no promises. See you around!
