"JAAAAACK!" Mary wailed. She wanted to run to him, but Ansgar held her back as tightly as he could. He tried to keep her from looking as her own brother began to bleed out onto the ice, pressing her face into his chest. "Monster!" She wept, "He's a monster!" Why hadn't she listened to her dreams? She should've known both the good and the bad would become true. Not only did he kill the beautiful creature, but now her own brother!
Ansgar gave his father the look of disgust he'd always wanted him to see. This is just what he thought of him.
Elrond didn't even notice his son, nor hear Mary's cries. He wasn't even looking at his kill... just Jack as he struggled helplessly. He wasn't reaching up for Elrond, nor trying to call for help. He watched, in a conflation of disbelief and awe, as Jack used the last of his energy to bring his hand into the creature's. He kept his gaze on it, with the tenderness one could only see between two lovers, and then went still, brown eyes closing forever.
Jackson Overland, eighteen years old, killed by a gunshot wound to the heart... and it had been done by Elrond. No, he was meant to save this town, not destroy a family! He felt his rifle slip from his fingers and he stumbled away from the bodies.
The crowd of people behind him was roaring, all coming close to the pond's edge. The mayor was shouting for his men to take Elrond, people were craning their necks to see if it really was Jack he'd killed, and even Hildur was reduced to a pale, frenzied mess for what she'd caused. It was a blessing that Nicholas and Emily Overland were still asleep in their beds, not knowing their first and only son lay dead so close to home.
Two men grabbed Elrond, and he made no fight against them. They pulled him back towards the shore, but they hardly made any progress when all activity stopped.
The winds began to howl again and snowflakes chased each other horizontally across the sky. Everything was white now, at least as far as Elrond could see. Then there was light.
A light that was glowing brighter and brighter.
Green, and blue, and yellow; then faster, violet, and crimson, and umber; then faster, peach, and olive, and canary; and faster, every color known and unknown, outshining the storm. It was the creature.
She was rising from where she'd fallen, her bullet hole only a small crack in her armored flesh of ice. She stroked a finger through Jack's hair with such love he'd never seen the being give. She held Jack's face and observed the wound in his chest... and then she locked eyes with Elrond. The two guards retreated, expecting Elrond to escape with them, but he just stood there, blinked.
It was shot twice, yet it still stands. Yet it walks.
She came close down the pond, her body a bright torch in the night. She had been burnt, scratched, shot, and stabbed... and those wounds and cuts and burns dribbled away like someone dragging their finger across frost. Elrond's eyes met with her everlasting, cold, blue ones once more. They were quite used to each other's company by now. Their faces were inches apart, the closest Elrond has ever been to her in his life... and it was his mistake. For he was marveling at her brilliant hue.
"You are no beast." He whispered, happy to say so here at the end. "You are... magnificent."
Elsa cocked her head to the side, as if she was considering his words. Then, with a single, forceful motion, she plunged a spear of ice through his chest in the very spot he'd shot Jackson. Pay evil unto evil. As her anger began to quell, so did the storm, and right as Ansgar could see again, he deliberately turned his head away... only so he wouldn't have to look upon the monster as it died.
Elrond felt he'd been opened. He had been closed to too much, and for too long. He looked down. Blood was jetting down his chest. It emptied him of everything. The fear. The hunters he'd sacrificed. The resources he'd wasted. His sins. As he fell to backward, he felt as though he were ascending, even though the creature opened the ice beneath him and let the cold water take him instead. He watched his blood rise to the surface, where he became nothing more than an empty vessel, filled with nothing but potential. The creature was guiding him there, and so to his next life he went.
...
All the civilians had begun to gather. People who wouldn't brave a storm like this except to seek out the incredible colors they saw radiating from the pond. Some refused to leave the site, others went back and went pounding on the doors to ensure everyone saw what was happening. The Overlands were awakened to the sound of a sharp knocking, and what startled them more was the fact there was no wind or snow outside.
They went to check Mary, but she was missing! Nicholas and Emily had to be dragged by the hand towards the pond, where they would surely find their daughter among the crazed denizens. "Mary!" Cried Nicholas, who recognized her the instant he saw her buried in Ansgar's arms.
Ansgar? Why he? What on earth—? "Nicholas..." Emily pulled on his coat and directed his attention towards the other side of the lake, where a glowing woman was kneeling over a pale, white-haired young man.
No... it couldn't be him. Not their Jackson. He had chestnut-brown hair and brown eyes like them! But they recognized those clothes, and that delicate little face he'd gotten from Emily. Ironically enough, it was the hair that was the giveaway. When the woman in white lifted him into her arms, Emily recognized the same, spiky, messy hair she was always nagging him to brush.
But how? She was too aghast to even cry, and thankfully too far away to see all the blood that stained his coat.
"Stop!" Shouted a guard. "Put him down!"
Elsa froze in place for a moment, aware that they did not know her intentions. She turned her focus on Mary, who returned her gaze. Once she was certain she could trust her, Mary nodded. Then Elsa nodded.
And without so much as a warning, snow and wind whipped all around Elsa and Jack. Only seconds later did it stop, and the two were gone.
"Jack!" Mary heard her mother cry, but the girl was not worried. She stood up, no longer needing Ansgar to hold her. She turned to him with a subtle, knowing smile.
"What is it?" He asked, too heavied by both grief and liberation to raise his voice above a whisper. Mary whispered into his ear, certain of her answer.
...
The sky was calm.
Jack and Elsa were both floating. Tyr had them both in his grasp as she gently let his winds carry them far from where they could be seen. Even in death, Jack's face was so kind. In his final moments, he had only been worried about her, but Elsa was not worried at all. She removed his jacket to get a better look at the wound; the overcoat went tumbling off into the mountains. She could see all the red now on his undershirt; all this blood from such a tiny hole?
It's because your heart is so big. I promise I will heal it.
With perfect precision, Elsa placed her palm over his chest and used her ice to fill the gap. Jack still did not move, nor breathe. Elsa had one final strategy, one he himself had taught her, to save the life of her most beloved.
There she lay and was so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her. He bent over and gave her a kiss. Immediately after the kiss, Briar Rose opened her eyes, awoke, and looked at him kindly.
Elsa took Jackson Overland's face and placed a kiss to his lips. She held it there and right then, the aurora borealis washed across the sky right as she began to glow. He looked so beautiful under their lights, just as he thought she did.
A moment passed.
Jack breathed. A final cloud of breath escaped him as he opened his eyes to see green all above him. But no more could be seen coming out of his mouth or nose, for he wasn't cold. He didn't know how it was possible to feel this warm after being nearly-frozen, but he didn't care. Jack was pulled closer and he realized he was with Elsa.
She looked into his eyes. They were as blue as hers now. His hair was still white, his skin paler than the moon, but he felt an energy he'd never known before. He felt like this was him. Jack couldn't help it, he smiled. He reached out and caressed her face. Jack believed he could look at her forever.
He kicked off his only pair of boots and they went tumbling down to earth... he didn't need them.
This is who he was, who he always had been. And without Elsa, the Snow Queen, he might have never seen that. She reached for him, and Jackson Overland, seeing this from behind her shoulder, found he could make snow dance out of his own hands. Elsa saw the joy in his eyes. He was happy. He was beautiful. At last, he was full.
He held her, she held him, they held each other.
He loved her, she loved him. And they would remain in love until the end of time.
Elsa.
Jack.
Together.
And as all fairytales read, they were happy forever. Anyone who knew them would tell you so.
There were whispers of the Snow Queen and her companion for years to come. To those who did not know his name, he was called Jack Frost.