A/N: First of all, thanks once again to everyone who is reading this fanfic. New or not, you guys keep motivating me to continue this fanfic in these stressful times. I hope everyone is doing well, and that you stay safe wherever you are. Without further ado, here's the new episode… I mean the next chapter.

PS: I don't own Disney's Frozen. If I did, there ought to be Elsa shorts to watch that would make everyone love her more than before, but totally I would be annoyed by her constant singing. JK I would enjoy it. :)

Chapter 23: Enemy of my enemy

Back at the apartment…

3rd POV

"...Hans?"

Out of all the scenarios she imagined in her life, Elsa would least expect to see the guy that tried to woo her sister, behead her on the frozen fjord in Arendelle, and steal the throne for himself in this place at this time. After all, she was stuck here in the 1st place because of some mystical crystals that teleported her and Nokk along with Bruni and Gale here to Alex's world. Plus, she didn't even expect people from her own dimension to find their way here, especially a cold-hearted ba- person, she thought, that perhaps wanted to kill her for their own evil reason.

She glared at Hans, who glared back at her with an angered look. "Hello, Elsa. We meet again…"

BANG!

Of course, Hans didn't expect for the 5th spirit to hit him on the head with an ice bat that she formed in her hands without him expecting it, the man falling back anime-style onto his back as Elsa raised the bat over him again, ready to strike him again. Of course, Hans raised his hand while using his other remaining hand to shield himself, the man clearly looking hurt from the pain he was now feeling from being hit by an ice bat.

"Wait," he pleaded to Elsa, who glared at him with Bruni and Gale coming to her defense, the little fire lizard getting on fire with a growl to the disgraced Seven Isles prince, "Don't hit me again."

"Why not?" Elsa demanded, readying her bat to hit Hans again. Of course, Alex had taught her how to defend herself should anyone tried to enter the apartment to rob the place or perhaps even attack her, even though she was capable of doing so with her powers. But he also taught her how to use a bat as he said it would be more useful in case her powers couldn't react in time, so she learned how to swing one and how to hit people on the head with one.

Clearly, it worked perfectly to hit a guy she didn't like on the head with the bat she made for herself. She made a mental note to thank Alex later on when he came back.

Hans grunted in pain while rubbing his head, using his free hand to reach into his robes to pull out a pair of crystals that were the color of green leaves. As he had expected, Elsa froze in her place upon seeing the mystical crystals, remembering that they looked like the crystals that got her here in the 1st place. "Are those? Can it be?"

He nodded. "Yeah. They're Beacons, which is what got you here in the 1st place."

The 5th spirit started to lower her bat, before raising it again, glaring at Hans. "How did you get them? And how did you find me in the 1st place? Are you one of the people that is trying to kill me and the rest of the spirits of the Enchanted Forest?"

He winced. "Well…"

"Answer me truthfully, Hans! So help me God, I will smack the Demogorgon out of you right here and now if you don't respond now."

Hans was a bit confused by what she meant. "Demo what?"

Elsa just realized what she spoke out loud to the prince. 'Damn it. I knew that I should haven't watched Stranger Things with Alex last night on his tv thingy.' She thought to herself, feeling a bit embarrassed before composing herself with a glare again. "I mean I will beat the Devil out of you right now!" 'Perhaps I also need to watch the number of hours I learn how to paint from Bob Ross.'

Hans took a deep breath, choosing his next words carefully to not get hit by the 5th spirit. "Alright, I'll explain everything. First, I used to be one of the people…" Elsa raised the ice bat again, Hans extending his hands to defend himself. "Wait! I used to be one of them, but not anymore now! I promise!"

Elsa seemed to analyze his answer before a thought clicked in her mind, causing her to get angry once again as she raised the bat over Hans once more, feeling infuriated. "You were the one that tried to kill me in the Enchanted Forest weren't you?!"

Hans knew that he wouldn't avoid the truth to come out, as Bruni was currently glaring at him while sitting on Elsa's shoulder. "Well, to be honest, perhaps it was me…"

BANG!

"Ow! Can you please stop hitting me?! I'm sorry for trying to kill you twice in a row!" Hans apologized as he rubbed his head again after Elsa hit him with her bat again, clearly angered by learning that it was Hans who got her in this situation in the 1st place. "I wasn't thinking straight when I was trying to kill you in the Enchanted Forest. I was only doing what the Peace Keepers wanted me to do for them."

"Peace Keepers?" Elsa questioned the man angrily, Hans sighing to himself as he was now regretting this plan of his that perhaps he hadn't fully thought out perfectly.

"The people that are trying to kill you and the rest of the spirits of the Enchanted Forest are known as Peace Keepers. They are a group of people who focus on the usage of dark magic to eliminate sources of light magic for the sake of embodying the world in total darkness. And they're planning on destroying Arendelle along with the Enchanted Forest with the nearby kingdoms of Corona, the Destiny Islands, and other places as well for the Superior."

Elsa needed to know more, as she was feeling scared despite not showing it when she heard that the Peace Keepers were planning on destroying Arendelle, thinking of Anna and everyone else she cared about. "What else Hans?! Why are they doing this?! Who's the Superior?!"

"I don't know who's the Superior is," Hans replied truthfully, though Elsa was still hesitant to trust him, "All I know is that this Superior is planning to release something that is known as the "Great Beast", and that without the spirits pf the Enchanted Forest or Atohallan around anymore, the entity will be released upon the realms and dimensions that exist, including this one, and everything that you see here will perish from existence forever."

Now the 5th spirit, along with Bruni and Gale, felt fear strike into their hearts. "Everything?" Elsa asked, Hans nodding with a grim look.

"I'm afraid so. And the only ones who can stop these people are you and the rest of the spirits here. From what I heard with the Peace Keepers, the Earth Giants, or the earth spirits, are not strong enough to defend Atohallan by themselves, and that the only way for everything to be restored is for the 5 spirits of the Enchanted Forest to unite at Atohallan with the Enchanted Artifact, and to combine their powers to restore balance in the realm again to defeat the "Great Beast."

Elsa was confused, though she still kept her guard up around Hans. "The Enchanted Artifact? What is that?"

Hans shrugged while massaging his painful throbbing head. "I'm not sure, but supposedly it's an artifact crafted by Atohallan, before the spirits were born, to aid in case the "Great Beast" was ever freed to banish the entity back to where it came from. And from what I heard, it was sent to a different dimension by Atohallan to protect the sacred relic from ever being destroyed by the forces of darkness. Specifically, this dimension is where it was sent to."

This revealing truth shocked the spirits altogether. An Enchanted Artifact? The "Great Beast"? An entity that needed for the spirits and Atohallan to be destroyed to be released to shroud the realms in darkness, and the only way to defeat it was for the spirits to unite their powers with the help of the Enchanted Artifact? And it was located in this realm?

The puzzles that Elsa had been trying to solve in her head ever since she arrived here were slowly starting to connect together for her. Why the Peace Keepers were trying to kill her and the rest of the spirits. Why Atohallan had called for her to become the 5th spirit of the Enchanted Forest. Why she was sent to this dimension in this timeline for who knows what reason.

It was to prepare her for the coming battle that would overshadow her own realm and Alex's world. But now, she was troubled by the fact on why Atohallan had sent her here to Alex's place out of everywhere else in the world. What role did Alex play in all of this? Perhaps he was to be her traveling companion and ally to guide her to find the artifact that would save everyone that she loved and cared about.

Unless… it couldn't be…

SCREECH!

Neither Elsa nor Hans had enough time to react to the dark fireball being flung their way, the blast almost striking the two of them had it not been for Bruni's quick reflex to fire his own fireball back at the attack, canceling it out. After the smoke dissipated, Elsa saw a group of Heartless approaching them, clearly looking with the motive to try to attack the group as they were outside and there was no one around to witness the event happen.

Hans got up with a look that showed that he was clearly shocked and confused. "But how? I clearly made sure to leave without no one noticing that I left the fortress to come here. How is it possible that the Heartless are here?"

Elsa turned to face Hans with a glare. "Did you come here to try to kill me again? If you did, it won't be easy to accomplish this time, Hans."

The prince shook his head. "No! I came here to bring you back home along with the spirits so you could stop the Peace Keepers from destroying everything back in our dimension, including my home kingdom the Seven Isles! I didn't think that they would follow me here without me noticing them!"

The 5th spirit felt like she wanted to choke him, but placed her thoughts aside, readying her self in a battle stance with Bruni and Gale by her side, the two other spirits calling to Nokk for help as they were surrounded by what seemed more than 20 Heartless. "Well, Hans," Elsa angrily spoke to the man, "We better deal with these things here and now, if you want me to at least believe that you're telling the truth to me."

Hans gritted his teeth while clenching his fists, before sighing with a nod and facing the other side while readying his own dark magic to fight the Heartless on the other side. "Fine. But you better at least put up a fight better than last time."

With the 5th spirit forming a temporary alliance with an old enemy now turned ally, they confronted the Heartless with their powers, a battle happening in the real world while someone was clearly watching the battle, safe back in the Peace Keepers fortress.

xxx

Back in Frozen dimension...

3rd POV

"So Hans, you're clearly are a traitor to us," Yerna smirked to seeing the prince fighting off the Heartless, enjoying the times he got hurt before getting back into the fight, "But unfortunately, your time will come to an end."

She raised a hand over her crystal orb, readying her dark magic to end the prince before a voice caused her to stop in her tracks. "Not yet Yerna. Hans is still of use to us."

Yerna turned to see Darius enter the room, the woman stopping her own dark magic to respect her boss. "For what reason exactly? You saw for yourself that he is trying to get the 5th spirit back home himself to stop us. Why do you want him to succeed in his mission?"

Darius chuckled, shaking his head. "Child, do you really believe Elsa will return with Hans back to Arendelle because he turned good? Tell me you're not aware that she hates him with a fiery passion that we were aware of since the day he tried to kill her on the frozen fjord after she had frozen Arendelle with her powers. Besides, she won't return with him because of the fate planned for her, which she will find the Enchanted Artifact to try to save her realm with."

Yerna was interested in what her master was saying. "And what would the Enchanted Artifact be?"

Darius shrugged. "Don't know. Perhaps an artifact with the powers of all the spirits combined but in order to locate it, we must first find the one "who will guide the chosen one to where the one will find why life is beautiful in art." I don't know what it means, but it's obvious that the one is Alex and the chosen one is Elsa, of course. But if we get Alex to turn to the darkness, the Enchanted Artifact will be ours to claim."

Yerna gave a wicked grin at this thought, rubbing her hands together. "Yes," she hissed, "That will mean that Atohallan will fall before us and with the magical place gone, we can shroud this realm in total darkness. After the Superior releases the "Great Beast", we can finally destroy the rest of the other Disney realms and worlds, where I can finally have my revenge against Princess Merida."

Darius nodded, before snapping his fingers at the daydreaming woman. "But come now. Make sure to teleport Hans back here after the battle, so we can prepare him to meet the Superior, who is coming here today. After all, it will be rude for the prince to miss out on meeting our master teacher that will release the strongest entity in the Disneyverse known as the "Great Beast."

Yerna got up and bowed in respect to her master. "Yes sir. Consider it done."

As Darius left the room in his robes, Peace Keeper Yerna got back on sitting on the floor, seeing that now the battle was over with the spirits and Hans being the victors of the battle. Raising her hand, her dark magic began to activate as she smiled at the prince with a wicked grin.

"Well, Hans, time to come on back now. The Superior has great plans for you now."

xxx

Back in the real world…

3rd POV

"Is it over?" Elsa tried to catch her breath, wiping away the sweat from her face as she surveyed the area looking for more Heartless to fight. Luckily, there was no more to be seen, and she glanced at the prince who was about 6 feet away from her, the man nodding to confirm. "Thank God. I don't think I had enough strength in me to keep this up."

Hans nodded in agreement, using his robe sleeves to wipe his own sweat off his face. "I never thought they would be that strong. These Heartless sure are dangerous to fight when you're on the wrong side." This earned him a glare from Elsa and Nokk, the water horse that had come in time during the fight to give assistance to Elsa and Gale and Bruni was now glaring at the prince as well. "Not that this is the wrong side, it's the good side at least."

No matter what Hans said though, Elsa still didn't trust the prince of the Seven Isles. After all, he had tried to kill her twice in her entire life, once in Arendelle years ago and the 2nd time in the Enchanted Forest a couple of months ago. But she told herself to put aside her anger away for the moment, as she still needed some answers from Hans about how her home was or how the Enchanted Forest was without her around.

Being cautious, however, she made sure to approach Hans carefully in case he was the one behind this new attack on her along with Bruni, Gale, and Nokk supporting her. In fact, Hans was still surveying the area for more attacks, he didn't notice the 5th spirit approaching him until she pushed him to the ground, the man getting surprised as she stood over him with her hand raised at him, ice forming on the tips of her fingers as she glared at him.

"Explain everything that is happening, now," she demanded to the prince, wanting an answer. Elsa didn't want to resort to violence for this situation, but she needed to know as much about her enemies that were planning on shrouding her and every other dimension in the Disneyverse in darkness. Also, she needed to know if her family were safe back in Arendelle.

With a sigh, Hans tried to explain how everything began for him when the head leader of the group, Darius, had approached him back in the Seven Isles with an opportunity to exact revenge on Elsa for exchange of loyalty to the Peace Keepers cause. He explained how they showed him to master the ability to conjure dark magic even without being born with powers, and how the Peace Keepers were planning on destroying Atohallan and Arendelle combined, as it was the force that stood between the balance of magic and the release of the "Great Beast."

"What's this "Great Beast" Hans?" Elsa questioned him, the man shrugging in truthful honesty.

"I'm not sure. But the Peace Keepers true leader, the Superior, is planning on releasing it to plunge the realms of light magic into darkness for the purpose of recreating everything in fear and evil. Whoever the Superior is, I don't know, but the person is truly evil and they're planning on destroying our dimension, including my home kingdom the Seven Isles."

Normally, Elsa wouldn't care a single thing about Hans, but she felt pity for him when she saw he was truly scared on the thought of his home kingdom suffering a fate that was horrible to think about. Lowering her hand, she extended a hand to the prince, helping the man back on his feet with Nokk still on alert, giving a compassionate glance to ease the worried prince. "So why are you here?"

Hans brought out the Beacon crystals he had shown her earlier on, sighing with unease. "I came to bring you home along with the rest of the spirits. So you can stop the Peace Keepers from accomplishing their goal of destroying our world and everything else from existence."

Seeing the green crystals in his hands left Elsa torn between choices. The fact was that she could return home once for all, and finally be able to see her family again after 5-6 months of not seeing them once was obviously one she would have chosen even with a blindfold on. Sure, it would be with a person she didn't like, but she could easily leave and return back to the Enchanted Forest with the spirits to restore the balance faster than a person's snap.

But then came the thought of the Enchanted Artifact and Alex. What if her powers and the spirits were not enough to restore the balance by themselves? What was the Enchanted Artifact anyways? Could it be that Atohallan sent her here to Alex's place because he would be the one to help her find this object and use it to defeat these Peace Keepers?

It was a jumble of thoughts in her head, but she made a decision she didn't know if she would regret later on for the sake of the future.

"I'm sorry, but no."

Hans was confused. "What? Why?"

She shook her head, her worried look replaced with that of confidence and determination. "I can't leave now with the fact that I need to find the object Atohallan sent here to this world. When I find the Enchanted Artifact, I will return to make sure to defeat the Peace Keepers and stop the release of this "Great Beast." No matter what it takes for me, I have to find the object that Atohallan sent me here for."

The prince felt truly disappointed in her actions. "Oh great…"

Before he could react, however, the crystals began to light up in his hands, causing the spirits to shield themselves from the bright light that emitted from the Beacons that Hans was holding. It was momentarily, but as the light died down, Elsa was the 1st to notice that Hans was gone, the very spot he was standing on was now replaced by nothing there to fill in. She tried to look around, thinking he may have been teleported to a nearby spot, but there was no one around except her along with Nokk, Bruni, and Gale.

It was a moment of quietness that left Elsa restless, wondering about everything she learned from Hans before he disappeared with the Beacons. She didn't know much before, but now she knew more than ever about this mystery shadow group, what their goal was, and how to stop them. Of course, she didn't know where she could find this Enchanted Artifact, but perhaps with the help of Alex, she would find it in a place that was tied to Atohallan in the 1st place.

The question is, exactly where?

But with this thought of this attack, she became worried. Truly worried. Because if the Peace Keepers sent the Heartless after her and the spirits of water, fire, and wind, they were sure to send someone after the person she now cared about. The person that pledged a promise to get her back home safe and sound. The person that she started running to upon seeing him return clearly injured but at least safe and sound.

"Alex."

A/N: Another chapter concluded. So, for this chapter, I tried making it funny as possible around the beginning, as well as have some pretty tense moments to keep the thriller up. I have some fluffy moments thought up for the next chapters, but this next one will have Elsa try to help Alex after something bad will happen to him when he returns. Just trying to keep the suspense up.

Anyways, leave a review and thanks to everyone who has left a review for this story. If you're new, welcome and thanks for stopping by. I have some multiple fanfics planned for the near future, and as this one is so far my biggest written one, I plan on doing stories that are romantic thriller type ones that are kid-appropriate ones and also fun to read about. So thanks for tuning in, and expect the next chapter perhaps this week. Hopefully, I can complete my online work by the time I upload the chapter. Until then, fellow readers! :)