Warning: Super big trigger warning due to sensitive content.
AN: Sorry for disappearing on you! I kind of distanced myself from the fandom and considered giving up on this fanfic. But I've been slightly more inspired lately, so let's see where this goes.
"Too long I've been afraid of losing love I guess I've lost. Well if that's love, it comes at much too high a cost."- Idina Menzel (Defying Gravity)
Chapter 7
Zelena approached Elsa's cell. Ice was everywhere. Elsa sat on the bed, her white hair hanging in her face. Everything was frozen over. This had to stop, and soon, before everyone froze to death. She had to figure out the secret to this stranger's powers before it was too late. She sat in a chair and observed her for a moment before speaking.
"How does this work exactly, those ice powers of yours?" Zelena asked with genuine curiosity.
"If I knew the answer to that, I would've found a way to stop it by now," Elsa replied softly. "When I was a child, I was told fear would be my enemy." Zelena looked around. Was she afraid?
"Alright, I think it has to do with emotions. There has to be some good times in your life to melt all this ice and frozen wasteland."
"You think it's going to be that easy, huh?" Elsa laughed. "It would be so much easier to just kill me at this point."
"No!" Zelena said as she pulled that pouting face of hers. "You've got a lot to learn if you're going around assuming I do everything the easy way." Elsa looked at her for a long minute.
"My sister Anna was my whole world, but I froze her on accident when we were kids. From then on, my parents told me to hide my powers and stay away from everyone so I could learn to control myself." Zelena raised an eyebrow.
"That's it? Really?" She gazed at the ice queen with suspicious eyes. "We'll make a powerful sorceress out of you in no time." Elsa wrapped her hands around the bars of the already frozen cell. She was doubtful about this new plan. It was so much easier to let her powers run wild than to rein them in.
"Think about a time you were extraordinarily happy," Zelena continued in a pleasant tone. "In your long, miserable life, what moment made you forget everything?"
"Building a snowman with my sister when we were kids," Elsa replied. "I don't understand, how is this supposed to help me?" Zelena grabbed one of her hands. It was so cold and she wanted to make it warm again.
"Trust me, and focus."
Elsa?
Do you want to build a snowman?
Come on let's go and play!
I never see you anymore,
Come out the door,
It's like you've gone away!
We used to be best buddies,
And now we're not
I wish you would tell me why!
Do you want to build a snowman?
It doesn't have to be a snowman!
Go away, Anna!
Okay, bye
Do you want to build a snowman?
Or ride our bike around the halls?
I think some company is overdue
I've started talking to the pictures on the walls!
Hang in there, Joan!
It gets a little lonely
All these empty rooms
Just watching the hours tick by!
Elsa?
Please, I know you're in there
People are asking where you've been
They say have courage, and I'm trying to
I'm right out here for you, just let me in
We only have each other, it's just you and me
What are we gonna do?
Do you want to build a snowman?
"No, I can't," Elsa said anxiously. Ice crept towards Zelena at a rapid pace. "I don't want to hurt anyone, please just go!"
"Don't be so childish! Just concentrate on the memory and-"
"I nearly killed my sister when we were just playing! Don't you understand? I'm dangerous!"
"Only if you believe you-"
"Stop!" A blast of ice struck Zelena's heart. She fell to the floor. Elsa stared in shock at what she had done.
Outside, Regina was shivering as she walked around and made her rounds as mayor of this town. Her mind couldn't escape the mystery that was Emma Swan. The shock of blonde hair and lost eyes held her to the spot whenever she thought of them. She didn't know what to do. Tink would be angry that she was throwing away her true love for Henry's birth mother. Is all that she was to her, even after everything they've shared?
You should be grateful she saved you from a destiny that you never chose.
"I make my own destiny…" She turned and headed to where Tinkerbell happened to be staying. Then she saw a familiar flash of blue and white skid across patches of ice and block her path. Elsa stumbled to a halt.
"Regina! I need you to help me! I froze Zelena's heart!"
"How am I supposed to help with that?"
"Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart." Regina felt her heart skip a few beats when she heard that.
"Look, I see what you're doing here," Regina said slowly. "But I am not all that close to my sister. You're the one who's spent all this time with her. If you have the power to freeze her, then you can easily melt her again." Elsa shook her head.
"I don't know how…"
"Of course you do, don't be ridiculous. Stop being so afraid of yourself, and start appreciating your talent! Look around this place! You created a frozen wasteland of my town with no effort!" Elsa glanced around at all the snow and ice on the ground. She sighed and brushed back her white hair.
Emma woke up breathing heavily. She could've sworn she felt Hook's chest hair tangling with the necklace she had worn that day. She coughed, still smelling his sweat all over the room. Tears stung her eyes as she tried to return to reality. "Just a dream…it was just a bad dream…" Where was Regina?
"Regina?" she whispered breathlessly. The last shred of sanity in her life was nowhere to be found. She couldn't find the will to breathe normally again. I fucking need you so where are you? She gripped the sheets for all it was worth and shut her eyes. That awful scent was choking off what little air she had left.
"Hello, Miss Swan. I hope you learned what I had to teach you the other day in the motel."
"You're not real. Go away." Emma nearly choked on her words. When he didn't move, she forced herself to sit up and face the man who had assaulted her recently.
You're not much of a savior now, are you?
He covered her mouth not with his hand, but that awful silver hook of his. Emma struggled against him. "My dear, this is how it's supposed to be. I gave up The Jolly Roger for you. You've kissed me a few times." She threw her knee up and hit him straight in the groin. He released her in his momentary distraction.
"I decide how my life is supposed to be," she said unsteadily. "I'm…the savior…" She shoved him off the bed. "Nobody tells me what my life should be." She concentrated on her anger and sent him flying into the wall. He fell to the floor with a sickening thud. She thought she heard a snap. "Oh no!" she whispered. "Did I kill him?" She approached his limp body and felt for a pulse. He was still alive, but his neck was broken. She dragged his body out of the room and hoped someone would take him to a hospital. Emma knew she was no killer, no matter what the situation was. She finally pushed him out onto the driveway outside. Either someone would find him or he'd freeze to death.
Regina was heading back to check on Emma when she located Hook's body in the driveway struggling to breathe, paralyzed due to a broken neck. He was slowly getting colder. She spit on him, kicked him in the side and kept on walking. She saw Emma inside with a bottle of her perfume, spraying as much of the house as she could. Henry was standing off to the side and coughing at the strong smell. Regina took the bottle from Emma.
"Stop, it's over. He'll die out there."
"Regina!" Emma choked out. "You're here!"
"Of course I am, this is where I live," she said. She stumbled back when Emma tackled her with a hug. She didn't know what to do. Should she hug back? Should she hold her?
"Miss Swan," Regina said in her mayor voice. "Please get yourself off of me." Emma only held on tighter. She felt her cheeks turn warm at all the contact. The scent of vanilla was stronger than her perfume could ever hope to be. She cautiously wrapped her arms around the sheriff. She wouldn't melt from a simple hug, not on the outside anyways. No matter what happened, that infuriating blonde-haired woman who took a chainsaw to her tree wasn't going away. Maybe this time she would let her stay.
"Emma, do you want to stay here with Henry and I?"
"You would do that for me?"
"Yes. Now can you make a decision before I change my mind?"
"Yeah, yeah of course I'll stay."
"Does this mean I have two moms now?" Henry asked. Regina shot him a look. Emma couldn't help but laugh at this.
"Henry, why don't you go get some breakfast? It's still early." Emma waited until Henry was gone before speaking again. "He has a point. What are we to each other now? Friends?"
"Friends," Regina allowed breathlessly. "Just…friends…" It wasn't enough. Nothing was never enough. But she had to start somewhere.
