Chapter 14 – Queenside Castle

"Well, that was crazy. Let's do it again!"

Anna's enthusiasm for new had no limits. She'd managed to not destroy Liz's phone (though given the lack of available data she'd been forced to only play games rather than browse the internet). One trip in a column of SUVs later, Elsa stood at the gates of her city as if she'd never left.

VROOOOM. VROOOOM.

Both guards and companions turned to see Anna's fiery red hair behind the wheel of one of the SUVs.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

"I guess it's a good thing that car is in park, or else you would've run over your sister."

"Very funny, Sasha. Now why won't this wheel turn?"

The Jamisons pulled Anna from the driver's seat. She turned to see Elsa running her hand over the castle's main gate.

"It's not supposed to exist here. But it does" she whispered. "Where is everybody?"

Snow began swirling. "At least it's appropriate for the climate" said Liz. She and Sasha craned their necks, trying to find the spot of blue they'd seen on several photos. In the distance—Elsa's ice castle. Life really had imitated art! Sasha moved to pull out her phone, only to find it gone. The cars, too, vanished.

Guards found themselves stripped of firearms, ballistic vests, and radios, though it could be seen approximately how far away anything not 19th-century vintage would be safe from disappearance by looking back the direction the group came. One man there waved his hands frantically, having been unable to summon his colleagues via technological means. Several of the now-baton-only squad retreated back to see what was going on.

"Well, I guess I could show you around." It wasn't a request—Anna practically dragged her two new friends across the bridge toward her childhood home, now manifested in their reality.

"She won't like this…" muttered one of Elsa's protectors. "Your Majesty!"

The flustered Queen tried to tamp down the snow but couldn't end it entirely. Those around her were treated to flurries.

"High-altitude surveillance—like the plane you flew in but basically for spying—has determined additional strange happenings are in progress in this area. One is less than fifty miles, the other several hundred."

Despite being temporally displaced, Elsa immediately guessed what this meant.

"The Southern Isles and Weselton" she spat. "Both had a grudge against my people due to my powers. Even though it appears none of my citizens are here, I suspect they may well attack anyway. How are wars fought in your land?"

"If they attack on horseback it's going to be pretty one-sided" replied a man wearing some kind of official-looking uniform. "The more advanced nations on this planet have, uh, vehicles" (he pointed at the remaining SUV some distance away) "like that, but bigger and more powerful. Based on what I've been told about your time, gunpowder isn't common there. Here, it's a mainstay from personal firearms all the way up to 120mm cannons mounted on tanks."

Receiving a blank look at the last part of his statement, the man stopped talking.

[…]

Further shifts in Norwegian terrain had even the normally-calm Norwegian Police Service sharpening their questioning of Hans.

"You claim to not have brought any further forces with you" they said "but based on what we know" (Hans glared at them) "these others are allied with you. It's suspected they represent Weselton and the Southern Isles. Unless you want to see all that weaponry you were shown in action against your people, you will do as we say and command that hostilities cease."

"In case it hasn't crossed your all-knowing minds" he snapped "I'm thirteenth in line. If my brothers want to start a war, nothing I say is going to convince them otherwise."

"There's no harm in trying. We will take you to 'Weselton' first."

"Perhaps you can explain this sorcery?" demanded an irked Duke. "You and your men go missing attacking Arendelle, which then proceeded to disappear. Now we are in a strange land!"

Keenly aware of the fate of technology coming into too close contact of what had been informally dubbed magic, only Hans was sent through Weselton's gates, which slammed shut behind him.

Approximately a half-hour later, Hans reappeared.

"I told you that wouldn't work" he fumed. "It just made them more determined to 'take out the monster.' It is what they were paying me for!"

The order went out: "Rattle their cages!" Minutes later, a squadron of six Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16 jet fighters roared overhead, though they also avoided close proximity to time-shifted areas. Given "Weselton's" appearance near to the Norwegian coastline, two of the fighters loosed missiles aimed out over the sea that would detonate some distance away, but their effect and sound would still be noticed.

"That won't scare them" insisted Hans. "They are ready to go up against a woman who can alter the weather. Explosives aren't on the same level."

"You are lucky that you are not dealing with the Americans" replied one of Hans' minders. "They might well have just flattened the place without question."

"That seems to be the impression I got of them, yes."

"Now, off to deal with this extended family of yours…"

[…]

"Well, I guess I can just live here. By myself…" The group, reassembled after a whirlwind jaunt through the castle and now viewing Arendelle at a range safe for modern technology, stood in a small circle.

"Oh come on, Elsa! You don't have to be alone! We've been over this!"

"I don't want a fight, I don't want to hurt anyone…"

"Okay fine, so we get yanked out of our world into some other one. But remember this?" She grabbed for a nearby tablet and made a few gestures. "You're forgetting that people here love us! Look!"

Children sang many of the songs the pair let out during their most recent adventures. Inspirations abounded, from the fluffy to the serious. "It's like a scroll of parchment" said Anna eagerly, "except, it's not…" She shoved the tablet in her sister's face.

"Woman, 23, Saves Herself From Depression Through Elsa"

"I mean, it stinks everyone obsesses over you and not over me, but I'll let it slide."

Anna's own grin finally managed to pull a small smile out of her sister.

"Well, if love thaws things… It might also transport people places."

"Yes! You said that before. I have absolutely no idea how that might work, of course, but given that throwing myself in front of a sword managed to save you…"

Elsa let out a small laugh. "You're not allowed to do that again. Queen's orders."

"Now, I don't think love can be quantified like gigabytes or megawatts" said Liz, "but my theory is that us obsessing over you brought you here." What she didn't add was the notion that said devotion might, in her view, have created something that wasn't supposed to exist at all, not merely pulled other people into the reality she called home. "So, enough craziness and it might just send you back."

Though the idea sounded ridiculous, even the most skeptical had to concede given recent events this didn't seem as far-fetched as it first looked.

"Thing is" continued Sasha, "if we were going to have some kind of huge 'Frozen' party, we couldn't just let anyone in. This isn't about the cool kids club or anything. But I'm pretty sure lots of people would try to buy their way in just to say they were there—that type of love is about as real as what you and Hans had."

"Don't get me started on that…"

"Anna!" Elsa gasped. "Where did you hear someone use that word?"

Smiling mischievously, she pointed at Sasha.