Chapter 12: One Last Chance
We continued flying for what felt like hours, which was really only minutes. Time was dragging by right now, most likely due to the fact that I was extremely nervous about the rescue. A part of me was hoping that Pitch wouldn't be there, that we could sneak in, get Anna, and sneak out. But I knew that wasn't possible being as the reason Pitch took her, I assumed, was to draw Jack and I to come find her.
What he intended on doing to us when we reached Anna, was still unknown and haunting my thoughts, but I assumed it would be related to his obsession with revenge. I still didn't know why Pitch had such a deep hatred for Jack, and I wanted to find out. Jack had told me the story of how the Guardians had defeated Pitch last time, so I guess I could understand why he was bitter and wanted revenge. But why just Jack?
"Elsa?" Jack called to me, breaking my thoughts with the sound of his deep voice.
"Yes?" I answered, turning to look at him and discovering he had already been staring at me. I felt a slight blush sweeping across my cheeks, simply from the way he was looking at me.
"There's something I forgot to mention about Pitch's lair." He said innocently. I gave him a small smile, encouraging him to continue, "Its in the modern world."
My face contorted into an extremely confused look as I tried to wrap my mind around what he said, and he laughed at my reaction.
"W-what do you mean?" I asked, helplessly confused.
He chuckled again before responding, "I mean, that Pitch's lair is in my hometown Burgess...which also happens to be in the modern world."
"Okay..." I started slowly, still not fully comprehending what he was saying about there being another world of some kind.
"That means we have to travel to the future to get there." He explained with a warm smile. I sat there trying to process his words, trying to understand that there was another world, a more advanced world, than that of Arendelle. I had a million questions swarming around my mind, and slowly felt the impending headache creep in, but I chose to focus on how we would get there.
"Okay, so how do we travel to the future?" I finally spoke up.
"Well, I have to create a portal for us to travel through that will take us directly to Burgess."
"Do you just use your powers to create it?" I asked incredulously. Jack and I had the same powers, so did that mean that I was capable of time travel as well?
"Well, not exactly." He said. "The Guardians all have the ability to create these portals to transport them to other realms like Neverland and Wonderland." He explained nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal that he had constant access to the different realms.
My eyes widened in both disbelief and excitement, as I gave in to my childish side that was curious to know more. I also knew of Neverland and Wonderland, as I had read these stories growing up and always fell in love with them. I loved the idea of being able to escape to a different world, and not having to grow up or hold back your curiosity.
"Wait, they're real?"
He chuckled, "Well, yes-" he started but I blurted another question before he could finish, letting out all of my curiosity at once.
"And you have the ability to go there? Whenever you want?"
"Well, yeah...how else do you think they have Christmas or Easter? What do you think they do with their recently lost teeth? How do you think they get good dreams? And most important of all, how do you think they have fun in those isolated worlds?!" He explained, slowly becoming more and more excited as he did.
"Wow...I guess I never thought of that. Well probably because I didn't know they were real...wow!"
He laughed, "Well now you know!"
"You never cease to amaze me, Jack." I thought aloud. It wasn't until I looked back at him, to see his shocked face, that I realized I had said it out loud.
"Ummm...I...uh..." I stammered, trying to find words to piece together to make a logical sentence, which wasn't working very well.
He cleared his throat awkwardly, "Maybe I could take you to see them sometime." He offered, trying to make the situation less awkward. It worked as my mood brightened at the sound of visiting the place of some of my favorite childhood stories.
Although, I read so often as a child, I had way too many favorite stories.
"That would be incredible!" I responded to his offer. He just smiled back at me, before looking back to watch where he was going. We had already had a few close calls with trees and such, due to his lack of attention and abundance of available distractions.
He came to a sudden stop, and carefully let my legs drop while squeezing me tighter to him with the arm that was around my waist. I looked up at him with a look of confusion in regards to the sudden stop, and he just gave me his signature half smirk. The half smirk that, if I had been standing on sold ground, would have made me weak in the knees. He pulled a small silver ring out of his sweatshirt pocket that resembled a ring of royalty, that had a large cursive 'G' inscribed into it. In the center of the little crook in the 'G' there was a gem that seemed to reflect every color possible from the sunlight. He held it up and spoke to it,
"I wish to travel to Burgess, Pennsylvania, in the Modern World."
As soon as he spoke those words, the gem on the ring started flashing many colors, before it glowed a bright white. In front of us, the sky seemed to twist and become distorted, as a swirling vortex appeared in front of us. The image was blurry, but I could faintly make out the appearance of a very strange looking town.
Jack grabbed my hand, and I looked up at him, giving me a look as if to ask me if I was ready. I nodded in response and we flew forward, into the vortex, and just as soon as we had entered it we were out of it again. I turned around to see the vortex disappearing behind us, and the gem on the ring Jack had, glowed one last time before returning to its normal state. He tucked it away, back into his sweatshirt pocket, and picked up my legs again so I was being cradled in his arms, hundreds of feet in the air. He looked down at me with a new expression of seriousness, his eyes that normally sparked with curiosity, were now dull and distracted.
"Let's go find Pitch." Was all he said to me, before shooting forward to continue our journey to Pitch's lair.
We continued flying in silence after that, and I was silently hoping Jack wasn't still thinking about what I'd said earlier. But I figured he was most likely worrying about the upcoming confrontation, the actual problem, instead of my little confession.
I looked down and saw a place where many children had gathered and were playing amongst themselves, climbing on metal bars and swinging on a swing set. Jack explained this to me, and told me this was the park. As the park passed by, I moved on to see rows and rows of homes next to each other on what appeared to be streets. In front of most of the houses were some odd looking contraptions crafted of metal and glass, that seemed to have seats of some sort inside of them.
What a strange kingdom this is...
I moved my attention to a fairly heavily forested area and, once we got closer, saw a pond that was surrounded by the tall trees, and a rocky cliff overhang. When we reached the far end of the pond, Jack began descending lower and lower until his feet touched the grassy ground. He gently placed my legs on the ground, and it took me a moment to get used to walking again, after flying for so long, so I grabbed onto arms for support. Once I had regained my composure, I walked over to the ponds edge and glanced into the water, looking at my reflection. I gasped at the way my hair looked, as the previously slightly tousled French braid was now a destroyed, platinum mess.
"Jack! Why didn't you tell me I looked like this?" I whined to Jack.
"Like what?" He asked.
"This." I said, gesturing to my messy hair, and horribly wrinkled dress.
He just held up his arms in defeat and shrugged his shoulders innocently. I rolled my eyes before turning to smooth out my dress with a flick of my wrist, repairing the ice material of it with my magic. Once that was finished I undid my braid and combed it through, yelping in pain as I went through each knot. I quickly wove my fingers in and out of my hair, rebraiding the platinum locks and pushing back my short bangs.
"You know you don't have to get all gorgeous to go kick Pitch's ass." He said with a smirk.
Gorgeous? Is that what he thought of me?
"I'm just trying to fix the mess you made of me with your reckless flying!" I countered, pursing my lips in a playful pout.
He stepped closer to me, bringing his face close to mine and stared into my eyes in a playfully intimidating manner.
"Well, if it wasn't for me you wouldn't be here, now would you?" He teased, raising an eyebrow.
I tried my best to glare at him, but he threw me his most dashing and dazzling smile, and I couldn't help but smile back. I shoved him playfully and he smirked once more at me, acknowledging his minor victory, and we started walking off towards the woods. We came across a small clearing where there appeared to be a fairly large hole in the ground covered by a broken wooden bed frame. As I got closer I saw that the hole was far deeper than I had originally anticipated, and I went to lean over to look into it, but Jack stopped me by placing a hand on my shoulder. I looked at his face and realized he had tensed up again, and the dull look in his eyes had returned.
"This is..." I started before I realized the answer to my own question. It was Pitch's lair.
He simply nodded and I felt a large lump starting to form in my throat again as my nerves kicked up. I was here to save my sister and bring her home safely, and I knew that meant having to confront Pitch again. Which is the last thing I wanted to do, right now, but its what I had to do for Anna.
I nodded and took a deep breath, "Okay...let's go." I moved forward to begin descending down the hole, albeit I had no idea how I was going to, before Jack stopped me yet again.
"Wait, here. I'm going down first." He said.
"But-" I tried protesting but he turned around to face me again and once I saw his eyes that were filled with fear, I bit my tongue and kept quiet. He turned back around and jumped into the hole, using the wind to slow him down, and I ran over to look down into it.
"Alright, now jump down." He said calmly, his voice in a hushed tone, as he extended his arms out to show he would catch me.
I was a bit scared to jump at first, afraid of having to fall before being caught in his arms, but after a moment, I did. I squeezed my eyes shut as I fell down rather rapidly, before I hit something fairly hard. I peeked one eye open to see Jack looking down at me, and I smiled at him. "Thanks." I whispered.
He just smiled in return as he set my feet down on the ground beneath us, and he moved in front of me to walk through a dark tunnel. I felt my nerves really kicking up now, as I was heading into a tunnel of darkness, about to face the sinister man who stole my sister in her sleep. Jack looked back at me, before entering the tunnel and saw that I was scared, so he took my hand in his and gave it a light squeeze. I felt much more comfortable being in Jack's protection, but I still couldn't help the fact that my fear was bubbling up inside of me, threatening to spill over and cause a breakdown. I saw a small source of dim light coming from the end of the tunnel, and as we approached I realized that we had reached the heart of his lair.
The overall appearance seemed to be that we were in a dark cave of sorts, with high ceilings and jagged rock structures protruding from places. There were cages that were made to look like birdcages hanging from the ceiling all over the place. I scanned every one of the cages until my eyes caught on to a lump, lying motionless, that looked like my sister.
Oh god is she okay? Please tell me she's not...
I looked over at Jack who was surveying the lair, to be ready if and when Pitch came out from wherever he was hiding. I nudged his arm to get his attention and pointed to the cage that contained the unmoving body of my sister. He saw the scared look in my eyes intensify as he looked back at me, concerned as well seeing that she wasn't moving.
"Alright stay here, I'm going to fly up to her and make sure she's alright."
I watched as he flew up to her cage and went to where he could see her face, before lightly rapping on the metal bars of the cage. I saw her starting to stir, and felt an immediate sense of relief wash over me at the discovery of my sister still being alive.
I was so distracted by observing Jack and my sister, that I was completely caught off guard when I felt a hand clamp across my mouth from behind, and something cold press against my neck. I let out a muffled cry, with alerted both Jack and my now fully awake sister to the situation I was in.
"Elsa!" Anna cried out to me, fear filling her voice, as well as her eyes.
I looked at Jack who seemed to be frozen in sheer terror as he took in the scene before him, before I watched his face turn to rage, bringing his staff up defensively.
"Ah, so much fear in one place...it's quite exciting, you know. For me that is." Pitch said in a voice filled with wicked happiness, as he held the blade made of black sand to my throat.
"Pitch." Jack growled. "Let her go." His piercing glare towards Pitch was deadly, and as he spoke his words, his voice was sharp as a dagger.
Pitch made a face to seem as though he were actually contemplating releasing me, before he concluded, "Mmm, no." He said. "But make a single move and she dies."
He laughed coldly while removing his hand from my mouth to my waist, pulling me up against him. I felt shivers going up and down my spine, causing me to shake noticeably for a moment.
"Is the Ice Queen cold? Or is that fear being inflicted into your soul?" He teased in an extremely condescending manner.
I gritted my teeth, and struggled to think of a way to get myself out of this mess, but my thoughts were interrupted by Pitch again.
"Hmm, what I could do to you, my Queen, is unspeakable." He purred while stroking my hip with his hand, before it started slinking lower to my thigh. I tried to squirm away and free myself from his horrible grip, but he only squeezed me tighter against him.
"I've got to hand it to you Jack, you sure do know how to pick them." He teased. I looked up at Jack, who was now boiling with anger, with pleading eyes, but I knew he was already trying to think of some way to get me out of this as well. I reached down and removed Pitch's hand from my thigh, but he grabbed onto mt hand and held it before I could pull away.
"Pitch let her go! She's done nothing to you!" Anna yelled, furiously. She appeared very angry, but I knew she was terrified as well.
"You, dear girl, will be next if you don't learn to keep your mouth shut and stop interfering with other people's battles." He hissed. "After all, that is why we are all in this mess. Because Jack couldn't keep to himself and stay out of a fight that was never his!"
"You made it my fight, when you started destroying the Guardians and going after the children!" Jack yelled back at him.
As Pitch was distracted with Jack, I took this as my opportunity to strike back and free myself from his clutches. I quickly reached up and grabbed the hand of his that was holding the knife to my throat. I summoned my powers and sent a wave of my power up his arms, quickly freezing them into blocks of solid ice. He cried out in pain, as I scurried to get away from him, before coming back the his senses and lunging at me with black sand starting to swirl around him.
Jack quickly came to my defense and flew towards Pitch, hurling a shot of his icy blue power at him. Pitch dodged the attack with ease and shot back a large blast of sand with a flick of his wrist. Jack's eyes widened as he saw the oncoming wave of sand, but he swung his staff in a circular motion, freezing it all and causing it to fall to the ground and shatter.
As Jack landed, Pitch started rapidly approaching him and that's when I stepped in and attacked Pitch from behind, shooting an icicle at him that hit his arm and made a fairly deep cut. He screamed in pain again and whirled around to discover that Jack and I had him surrounded, as we were circling around him one on either side. Suddenly, he literally melted into the creeping shadows along the floor and disappeared, no where to be seen.
I scanned all around the dark cave, trying to locate him and saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned around to find nothing there and instead, nervously glanced up at my terrified sister.
That's when I saw him.
Pitch was standing on the top of her cage, looked down at me with a dark look of rage plastered across his features. I glared back at him, and he just flicked his wrist in Jack's direction, forming horses of black sand that surrounded him on all sides. They seemed to be in a fighting stance, as if waiting for the command to attack.
"This is your last chance to accept my previous offer, Elsa." He sneered down at me.
I looked over at Jack whose eyes had widened from both the amount of black stallions now surrounding him and hearing of Pitch making a deal with me.
"What offer?" He growled at Pitch, before turning to me, "Elsa what is he talking about?"
I gave him an apologetic look, then turned back to Pitch furrowing my brow in rage again. "I will never make a deal with you, Pitch." I spat out his name like a piece of bad chocolate.
His face hardened a bit, before he seemed to relax and straightened his posture again. He called another nightmare horse to come over to him, and he climbed onto it and off of Anna's cage.
"Fine, so be it." He snapped his fingers and as soon as he did, all hell broke loose. The swarm of nightmares started attacking Jack all at once, and he was struggling to fight them off. I was about to turn and help him, before Pitch spoke again.
"Not so fast, Elsa. Didn't you come here to save your poor sister?" He said in a voice so cold, I could almost feel my body temperature dropping.
I turned back just in time, to see Pitch shoot an arrow of black sand that cut through the chain hanging the cage from the ceiling. The cage started falling rapidly towards the chasm below it, and Anna's screams filled my ears before she hit her head on the ceiling of her hard, rendering her unconscious.
I also heard someone else's screams, Jack's. He was being maliciously attacked by the nightmares and was left almost entirely defenseless against them. But Pitch had concocted another swarm of them and was sending then towards me, all the while Anna was still falling. There was so much happening I thought I might die from the headache it was causing.
I quickly flicked my wrist in the direction of where Anna's cage was falling, then raised it up bringing with me a pillar of ice that the cage landed on. Anna was lying limply in the cage and all I could do was hope she was alright.
While I was distracted with saving the cage from disappearing into the chasm, the swarm of nightmares had surrounded me, and I quickly found myself in the predicament Jack had been in before. I shot ice as quickly as I could to all of them around me, but it still wasn't enough as they continue to knock me over. I was on the ground on my hands and knees, and I then focused as hard I could on my powers before standing up and exploding, sending ice shards flying all around me. As each horse was impaled, it froze to solid ice, then fell to the ground and shattered into a million pieces.
I quickly turned my attention back to Jack who was losing the fight terribly, and ran over to help him. I stomped my foot, creating a large wave of ice, then thrust my arms forward pushing it. It came crashing into the nightmares like a tsunami, destroying them all. I pulled it back, giving Jack enough time to crawl out from behind it, before it smashed into the wall. I was bent over with my hands on my knees, he was sprawled on the floor on his back, and we were both breathing heavily.
"Are...are you okay?" I managed to choke out.
He nodded and extended and arm to me, to help him stand up. He stood up and turned to face me, looking a bit hurt. "W-why...didn't you...t-tell me about his...offer." He said between breaths.
I felt guilty for not telling him before, but at the time, it was best that I didn't worry him anymore than he already was.
"I didn't want to worry, you." I looked down as I fidgeted with my fingers, "I'm sorry, Jack." My voice cracked on the last part form the emotion I was allowing myself to show.
He stepped towards me and held both of my arms, "It's okay, don't worry about it." He said, "Now are you alright? Are you hurt?" He asked me, the concern rising in his voice with each word.
I nodded, "Yes I'm fine but Anna..." I stopped mid-sentence remembering that Anna was still in the cage, unconscious. "Oh my god, Anna!"
I ran over to the where the stone ended, and the chasm began, right in front of the ice pillar I had made for the cage to land on. I formed an ice path across the chasm to the spot where the cage was, and quickly ran across it to get to Anna. Jack followed quickly behind, and stood there beside me while I looked at the heavy metal lock that was on the cage.
I decided I would try to control my powers in a different way this time, to try to break off the lock. I stood back and extended my hand with my palm up, covering the lock in a layer of ice, then slowly started to curl my fingers in. The ice was spreading to the center of the lock, and when I clenched my fingers into a fist, it shattered with the ice.
I was shocked at what I had just done, I knew I could manipulate ice and snow, but I didn't know I could manipulate it like that.
Jack next to me gasped in shock as well, "How did you do that?"
I just shrugged before tuning into the cage to get to Anna and make sure she was alright. I checked her pulse and it was still strong, plus she was breathing, and I felt a wave of relief wash over me.
"She's alright, she's just unconscious." I said.
Jack picked her up in his arms, turned to me and said, "Alright, now let's get the hell out of here before Pitch comes back."
I nodded in return and followed him out of the cave and back through the tunnel where we found the hole we entered through. He flew up and gently placed Anna on the ground, before coming back down to bring me up through the hole.
Jack turned to me, with an exhausted expression on his face, but still faintly smiling.
"Come on, let's get you two back to Arendelle."
A/N: That took a very long time for me to write and edit, especially considering I'm unbelievably busy and somewhat lacking in the department of creativity lately :(
But anyways, Jack and Elsa kicked Pitch's ass so bad he ran away from the fight XD , and now Anna is safe! Yay!
The next chapter should start with the reunion back at the castle in Arendelle mostly because (I'm not going to lie to you) I have absolutely no idea how Jack was going to carry them both back while flying...so being the honorable author I am, I chose to skip it...don't hate me haha
R&R please! I love hearing your feedback and I get a lot of both inspiration and good ideas from all of y'all!