The Glen in the Cave

(A/N: The song segments sung by the daughters of the Sunbeam is 'Standing Stones' by Loreena Mckennit, if you want to check it out.)

Thord stared at the shimmering, upright pool in Ahtohallan. The reindeer had paused outside of it. "Is that where they went?" he asked it. It didn't give any indication of an answer. "Can we go through it too?" he questioned. The reindeer snorted then ran to it, leaping through as Thord cried out. They came up from out of pond properly situated on the ground, and landed on the grass. The reindeer shook off the water. Thord, soaked now, gaped back at the pool behind them in disbelief, then looked ahead. The reindeer bucked, throwing him as he cried out. He hit the ground with a grunt and shook his head, gasping. Before his eyes its form morphed and changed, and soon he found himself face-to-face with none other than the elven king. His lips parted in awe.

"You stand in Tir Na Nog," the creature declared.

"Holy shi…" Thord began.

"Walk into the woods. I will guide your path, though I will not accompany you," the king cut off.

"Why?" Thord asked. The elf merely smiled a rueful smile before vanishing. Thord looked ahead again and saw a path before him he hadn't noticed before. Swallowing, he started down it warily. Was he a fool to trust the erl-king? Maybe. But he needed to find Elsa.

Frozen

Elsa moved quickly through the unknown forest, tears streaming from her eyes. Devastation, she recognized. What she felt was devastation. She wiped her cheeks furiously, sniffing, and focused on trying to find her baby. "Kay!" she called out. No crying was heard. "Kay!" she called again. "Carabis, where have you taken him? Where did you take my baby?!" As expected, there was no answer. She whispered a curse, clenching her teeth and closing her eyes as she gripped fistfuls of her hair in her hands and shook her head.

"In one of these lonely Orkney Isles, there dwelt a maiden fair.

Her cheeks were red, her eyes were blue, she had yellow curling hair."

Elsa gasped, looking around, and saw the daughters of the sunbeams flitting in the forest, singing and dancing around her in the sparkling rays. Could sun even reach down here? Was Tir Na Nog in the Underworld, even, or was it above ground just hidden by fairy illusion? She supposed the same question could be asked of Avalon.

"Which caught the eye and then the heart of one who could never be,

A lover of so true a maid, or fair a form as she…"

Elsa scowled, turning from them quickly and running onward as her husband's image immediately came to mind. Those words cut far too deep. She stopped, gradually, hugging herself tightly and shaking her head vehemently. "Yes, he could," she whispered in response despite knowing the sunbeam's daughters may not even be referencing Hans. But she suspected that they were. "He was… He still is…"

"Standing Stones of the Orkney Isles, gazing out to sea;

Standing Stones of the Orkney Isles, bring my love to me."

"Enough!" she ordered them. They only giggled in response, circling all around and smiling softly at her. "Help me find my baby," she pled.

They hummed a bit before flitting quickly towards a tree line and pausing. She started to follow when suddenly… "Elsa!" a voice called out. She gasped, turning. Her expression filled with emotion. Vulnerability, desperation, longing. There, hurrying through the forest and running towards her, was her cousin!

"Thord!" she cried out, sobbing and immediately running to meet him, to his surprise. He was taken aback when she fell into his arms crying, clinging to him.

"Elsa, what happened?" he demanded. She shook her head and immediately filled him in on what had occurred from the moment 'Gerda' had taken Kay from her arms. Thord's grip on her tightened protectively as he listened to her story. A burning rage blazed inside him, for a moment, towards Hans, but he quelled it quick enough to focus on Elsa's needs right now. Was this that big brother slash big sister instinct Ryder and Honeymaren joked with each other about? They liked to toss those terms back and forth, a constant argument between them being who had been born first. He supposed in his and Elsa's case it would be just 'sibling instinct' or 'brother slash brotherly instinct', because neither he nor his cousin actually knew which of them was older.

"I can't find him, Thord. I can't find my baby," she said in grief, drawing back and sniffing while she wiped her eyes. "I don't have any other options. I have to go with the daughters of the sunbeams. I'll never find Carabis here without their help."

"The daughters of the…? Holy crap!" Thord said, noticing the ethereal maidens who were looking at him giggling and grinning amongst one another, pointing at him. "What the…?"

"I told you about them," Elsa said.

"I never thought I'd actually see them!" Thord replied.

"They're married to Vertigo's brother," Elsa said. "It could explain their sudden interest in you.

There was a beat. "Don't say it. Don't you dare," Thord warned, eyes narrowing at her.

Elsa tried to hold it back, but she couldn't. "Your step-aunts are curious about their new step-nephew," she let slip, a smirk quirking at her lips as she sniffed again.

"You said it," Thord said, scowling and massaging the bridge of his nose in annoyance. Elsa let out a broken laugh, and for that he was relieved. It was a small comfort for her, perhaps, but it was a comfort nonetheless. He took her hands in his. "We'll find him, Elsa," he promised. She hugged him again. He hugged her back wondering what the heck he was thinking. He couldn't bring himself to take it back though or regret his spoken vow. Elsa turned to the sunbeams again, who continued to wait and watch, then took a breath and followed them with her cousin.

"We're in Tir Na Nog. The realm of the fae and probably the jotun," Elsa said.

"The realm of mythical creatures," Thord 'corrected', but Elsa supposed it made sense, actually.

"The nokk claimed it was close to Avalon. I'm not sure if that's Carabis' goal, I don't know what he could hope to gain there aside from trouble and strife, but then I can't understand why he brought Kay to the faerie realm at all," Elsa said.

"To taunt you, maybe? To taunt his faerie kin as well?" Thord suggested. "Or… or maybe this is where he'll be at his strongest… It's his domain, if it's a realm of mythical creatures, and we could be walking right into a trap. Elsa, Kay is just bait. What if it isn't you Carabis means to catch with that bait?"

Elsa stopped, bristling. Hans, she realized immediately. Concern came to her eyes briefly before anger replaced it, along with hurt. She looked away, closing her eyes. "He wants the mirror's power anyway," she hissed. "If he doesn't care if he's Carabis' slave, why should I?"

"You don't mean that," Thord said. Elsa looked up into the forest, rubbing her arms vulnerably. She didn't know what she felt.

"If he wanted to be Carabis' servant, he wouldn't be fighting so hard against it," Thord said. Elsa let out a shaking breath. "Maybe we can argue that he fights against it for your sake more than his own desire, but he still fights. Maybe he didn't care before you came into the picture, but afterwards that changed. You gave him a reason to battle and to live."

"But he won't give them up," Elsa said.

"I can't pretend to understand that, or why he won't, but there has to be a reason for it," Thord said. "Did you maybe ask why?" Elsa was quiet, lips drawn tight and tears threatening her eyes. "Maybe you should?" he offered gently. "Before giving him up for lost. You aren't the type, as far as I know, to give anyone up for lost. Right now, maybe anger and hurt and other emotions like that are clouding your judgement, but when it passes what then? What then, if he isn't there for you to offer a chance to anymore?"

"You don't understand what it was like, what he said," she insisted, but her words sounded like denial to her own ears.

"No, I don't, so I'll drop it now, but don't brush this off," Thord replied. She was quiet, considering his words. She opened her mouth to reply but just then they heard a baby crying again. It was close.

Elsa gasped. "Kay!" she called out. The sunbeams quickly flitted in front of her when she started in that direction, looking grave and shaking their heads. "It isn't him?" she asked. They shook their heads. "A faerie trick," Elsa realized. The sunbeams smiled and moved in a different direction. Quickly Elsa followed them with an increasingly uneasy Thord. That was too close for comfort, he noted to himself, and if it was a sign of things to come, he regretted coming after her.

Frozen

Carabis perched high on a tree branch overreaching an eerie, slow river. The infant held in his arms wailed and cried. "Do you know what stream this is, little one? Of course you do not. She is called Lethe. She is the river of forgetfulness, who takes away the memories of those who drink from her waters and stores them within herself. Ahtohallan is a branch of her which draws memories from the stream and stores them safe in its frozen expanse," he said to the child. He looked at the waters again and smirked cruelly. "Your parents will come for you," he murmured to the child. "Your father will come for you… And the river will make him mine." The baby's volume continued to rise as its screams became louder and louder. "I will mute you, if I have to," Carabis threatened darkly.

"Kay!" he hears a distant voice call. A woman's. Elsa.

"Kay?!" another echoed. A man's, but not Hans.

"Hmm… You're as lucky as your parents," Carabis said with a malicious smirk at the child in his arms. He took off into the air, flying towards where he intended to face them. A cave deep within a mountain, that opened out into a large chamber exposed to the sun wherein there grew a grove. It was beautiful, but it was corrupted, for something monstrous dwelt there. Something monstrous besides him, that was. Two things, in fact. He reminded himself not to move too swiftly. Step by step, he told himself. Step by step, as tempting as it might be to jump the gun.

Frozen

The sunbeams led Thord and Elsa up the mountainous path, guiding them along before pausing, finally, at the entrance of an unassuming cave. They pointed within. "Go forth," one of them said.

"We will meet you inside, where we can," another added.

"Your child is within, but so is great danger," a third stated.

"Carabis is powerful here, and his mirror, the wicked mirror… He has moved it to this place far within…" a fourth said.

"Do not seek the mirror. Flee from it, if you must," a fifth warned.

"Oh this is horrifying," Thord uneasily said, grimacing. "Maybe we should, I don't know, head back?"

"My baby is in there!" Elsa protested.

"According to them!" Thord replied, pointing at the personifications of he assumed either sunbeams or general warmth generated by the sun.

"They aren't fae," Elsa said, looking to the cave. "They won't speak in riddles and double talk." She headed into the cavern. Thord sighed heavily and uneasily followed her, though he kept a fair bit behind while nervously looking around.

About ten minutes in, they heard distant cries. Elsa gasped and broke into a run. Thord followed her quickly, but this felt all kinds of wrong. Elsa likely sensed it too, but Kay was her priority and Thord couldn't blame her for that. It just meant he would need to be the cautious one here. Not a problem. He usually was the cautious one, given his prior occupation.

"Elsa," he said, suddenly stopping. She paused, looking back. "Go ahead. We shouldn't both run out there blindly. I know you have to save your child, but if something goes wrong…"

"Someone needs to serve as backup," she realized.

"I'll stay here. If you need help, if things take a turn for the worse, shout and I'll come running. If I can't help you myself, I'll run and find someone who can," he said.

"Keep silent and out of sight. Be careful," she said.

"You're the one who needs to be," he gravely replied. Elsa nodded. The truth of that statement wasn't lost on her. "Stay alive," he said. She smiled reassuringly then hurried on. He let out a shaky breath and rubbed his arms, looking uneasily around.

Everything was wrong…

Frozen

The cave opened up into a large chamber and Elsa came to a stop with a soft, long, intake of air, lips parting in awe and eyes widening at the sight before her. A beautiful grove within a cavern, waterfalls pouring into it from above from five different rivers, and likely emptying out from this place as well to travel goodness knew where. The place seemed melancholy, despite its beauty, and everything about it screamed it wasn't to be trusted despite appearances. She stepped into the glen cautiously. Her baby's crying was louder. Longing and protectiveness surged through her body, and she abandoned caution, picking up her step rapidly until she was running once more, searching for her child. The sunbeams were there, flitting around her and looking concerned.

"Don't."

"You're being deceived."

"You will be trapped."

"You will make yourself bait."

"You will doom your husband."

"She must, to save her child."

"Perhaps she must doom even herself."

"Whatever it takes," she answered them. In that both she and Hans were agreed. Their child before themselves. Their child before each other.

She pushed through some hanging vines and stopped with a gasp. There, laying bare on top of a flat rock, was her wailing baby kicking and shivering and choking on his little sobs. "Kay!" she screamed, racing to him and scooping him into her arms. She broke down into tears and cradled him as close and tight against herself as she dared. "Darling, my darling, it's alright. You're alright. Mommy's here. Shh, shh baby, mommy's here. She heard a little grumbling sound and sobbed. He was hungry, quickly she slipped her dress off one of her arms and let it hang loose so she could nurse him. She sat on the rock, placed him to her breast, and let him eat to his heart's content. A soft and relieved gasp escaped her lips as she felt him there alive and squirming against her, his suckling as strong as it could be, for such a tiny baby. Greedily he fed. That assured her he wasn't hurt or weakened. Her child gazed up at her with teary, fearful eyes that now held a measure of adoration and relief in them, to be in his mother's arms again. She laughed through a sob, tears of happiness flowing from her eyes now, and gave him a gentle grin before lifting her head to look around anxiously. If Carabis intended for them to be bait, he already had them sighted. She would not be an easy mark.

"Carabis is powerful here," a sunbeam repeated in a whisper from close by, visibly afraid though more for Elsa than for herself. Elsa gasped, looking quickly to her.

"He is coming," another urgently said.

"I won't be afraid," Elsa said to them, turning to her child again. "Don't give him your fear either. Just… just stay by my side… Please."

"We will stay with you, Snow Queen," they agreed together, surrounding her as if they were her handmaidens, tending to her with reassuring gestures or actions.

"It isn't Carabis," a sunbeam suddenly said in a hollow, terrified tone.

As if on cue, a heavy footfall sounded. Elsa gasped, looking over, and her eyes widened in horror. Her lips parted in dread as she slowly stood. She didn't try to hide her fear. With Carabis it might have worked. With this one? No. "Mor'du," she breathed tensely, clinging tightly to her still feeding child as the massive beast lumbered towards her, brush and grasses cracking and breaking beneath his bulk. He stopped, staring at her, and Elsa felt true terror.

Frozen

The bear huffed and chuffed before raising onto its back legs and roaring loudly as Elsa backed away in fear. "Run!" one of the sun beams shouted at her, pointing.

Elsa gasped and quickly pulled her child away from her breast, causing him to burst into tears anew, but that was the least of her worries now. She turned, racing through the foliage as quickly as she could, but she knew it was coming. She heard it lumbering after her faster than she could ever hope to run. She conjured her ice mare and mounted it fast, though it was a struggle with the babe in her arms. The mare surged ahead quickly, putting distance between her and Mor'du, but the bear wasn't deterred. Neither, though, was her mare which ran faster than he. Elsa threw up ice walls behind her to try and slow her pursuer. She heard them shattered or broken through one by one, albeit some slower than others. Still, it was giving her a chance to get away. She just had to round back to where the entrance into this glen had been and get through it, and they would be alright. They could get out of here.

But the sunbeams had sensed Carabis too…

No sooner had that chilling thought come to her when suddenly she felt something seize her, dragging her from her horse along with her child as she shrieked. She turned in the air so as not to land on and harm her infant, keeping him close. She hit the ground and staggered up quickly to come face to face with none other than the hybrid itself, grinning maliciously.

She scowled and let out an infuriated shout, attacking him immediately. He hissed, blinded by her blizzard and assaulted on all sides by the daggers of ice formed within it. Elsa turned and ran to an out-of-the-way area, laying her baby on the soft moss and wrapping him quickly in an icy blanket as he cried; but fighting with him in her hands wasn't an option. She stood quickly, eyes narrowed and jaw firm, and prepared to take on Carabis who finally shattered the blizzard, blowing it outwards. Elsa shielded her face and her baby, crouching low as the icy daggers pierced everything everywhere around them. She quickly rose again with a scowl and sent out another icy attack. Carabis parried it and kept coming. She raced to the side and attacked him once more, causing him to turn fast and run at her again. He curled into a rock form reminiscent of the trolls he had killed and tried to knock her down. She dove to the side and got quickly up, freezing him. He broke out of the ice form, leaping to his feet, and this time he went on the offense. His first attack struck her hard. She cried out in pain as the swarm of wasps and gnats engulfed her, stinging and biting mercilessly as she tried to fend them off. She let out an icy shockwave, freezing them all in one go finally, but was immediately met with another attack. A spear of dark magic tearing through her shoulder and causing her to cry out in pain, covering the wound quickly and gasping. Her arm felt numb. She wasn't sure she could even move it, but she willed herself to try. It responded slightly, but that wasn't enough. For the moment, it was out of the fight.

She looked up at Carabis with a scowl and sent another barrage of attacks his way, assailing him from all sides until he was bellowing and roaring in rage, ripping at everything and anything including himself to try and get it to stop. He let out a shout of rage and immediately obliterated it all with a powerful attack similar to her icy shockwave, but strong enough to reach her too, throwing her back and onto the ground. She attacked with a wall of icy spears that pierced him through, impaling him for a moment. He screamed in agony and she got up, racing to where she'd deposited her baby and scooping him up again, starting to flee once more. She heard the bear coming again.

She ran near blind, following the sunbeams and trusting their guidance completely. Suddenly Carabis was there in front of her again. He attacked her powerfully with a dark energy blast tainted with millions of tiny slate and brimstone shards, sharp as daggers. She barely managed to turn her back to him in time to shield her child. The attack struck her point blank, shredding her gown and body, and she screamed in anguish and sobbed, collapsing to the ground but managing to protect her child from injury again. She lay there bleeding and shaking in what remained of her clothing, holding tight to her baby. Her body ached and burned as if whatever it was that had struck her had been poisoned or on fire. She heard Carabis approaching her. Her eyes opened weakly as she struggled to draw in shaking breaths. Her child's screams echoed in her ears and she gritted her teeth, willing herself to get up. She gave a shout, forcing herself to her feet and turning to him again, attacking with a storm of icy daggers that stabbed through him without mercy, causing him to shriek as they pinned him to the ground. She conjured a snow beast to aid her when she heard Mor'du coming again, and it went off immediately to face the bear in battle so she could focus on Carabis.

She could only imagine how she must look with her tattered dress and half-loose hair, partially out of its braid but not completely. She didn't care. Her eyes burned with hate and protective fury. She attacked Carabis again and again, but again and again he dodged or tanked her assault, or recovered from it quickly, and she felt herself starting to give ground. How was he so powerful and she so weak?!

Carabis is powerful here…

Fear began to build within her. This wasn't her domain this time. It was his. What if he could destroy her in this place just as easily as she had destroyed his armies? Carabis walked through her latest barrage of attacks like they had barely affected him, another wicked looking attack lit up in his hand. He raised his hand up to throw it, and she knew that she wouldn't weather this one. She gasped and realized what her only option was.

Protect herself. Protect her child. Live.

Her eyes steeled, her expression grew determined. She looked down at her child, cuddled him close, let out a shaking breath, and at the same time Carabis threw his dark attack towards them, she employed her own…

Immediately around her a casing of ice began to form from the bottom up, creeping up her body as the orb closed the distance between them. It almost seemed slow motion. She closed her eyes, clutching her wailing child close and resting her head gently on his own, letting her hair cascade over him. Just as the attack struck at their feet, the icy shell completed its formation, freezing solid around them and entombing her and her baby in a protective wall of crystal-clear ice that would not be shattered. The last thing she heard was her cousin screaming her name as he came upon the scene…

Frozen

"Elsa!" Thord screamed as he saw what was happening; as he watched the dark attack strike at their feet and explode while the shell finished forming around her and her child before being completely engulfed in the savage attack that tore apart the trees and brush around them. He had to dive behind a rock and hope and pray he wasn't a casualty of the assault. When it was passed, he leapt to his feet and over the rock. The hybrid was staring at him with a dark scowl, Elsa frozen in an icy shell clutching her infant close. Thord didn't know what to do. He didn't know what this meant, he didn't know what Elsa had done, he just knew he was angry and he was grieved, and he wanted blood. "Damn you!" he roared at Carabis, charging him thoughtlessly. The hybrid literally laughed and he had every right to, Thord knew full well he was probably charging to his death, but he wasn't about to back down and leave his cousin unavenged.

Carabis attacked with a furious surge of shale daggers that cut through the air towards Thord, Thord scowled and slid to a stop, throwing up his arms in a futile attempt at defense, but suddenly he heard the shale shards clatter against a barrier between him and them. He looked up and gasped. Before him was an icy wall serving as a shield. He gasped, looking at his hands. No. It wasn't him. His eyes widened in realization. It wasn't him, but it might as well be…

"Mom," he said in shocked realization. As his aunt had seemed to control the wind that was her father, so he would now 'control' the glacial force that was his mother… Carabis looked startled, then horrified as he too seemed to realize what this meant. Briefly the Ice Maiden appeared to her son in the reflection of the ice, staring into his eyes intently and determinedly. She nodded, the smallest of smiles crossing her lips, then vanished. Thord grinned wickedly and looked directly at Carabis.

"Damn you!" he heard the troll roar, but not to him. To his mother.

"How about damning me instead?!" Thord shouted in response, charging him again. He thrust his hand forward and an icy javelin tore through the air and struck Carabis in the abdomen, pinning him up against a tree and causing him to shriek in pain. He jerked it out of him and collapsed to the ground before staggering up and sending out another barrage of attacks. At every turn they were blocked. At every turn the Ice Maiden protected her son. Thord waved his hand through the air. "Icicles!" he ordered at the same time. A wave of icicles formed, heading for Carabis. The hybrid leapt over them and soared at Thord with a roar, managing to reach him in time to seize his hands and lock the two of them into a wrestling match the mortal couldn't hope to win. But then the mortal wasn't alone. An icy javelin pierced from a tree and struck Carabis' side. From between them an icy stake shot up. Carabis barely managed to avoid getting it through his head. Thord spun around it and stabbed him five times in quick succession with an iron dagger and the hybrid screamed in rage and pain, thrashing and staggering back in dread of the weapon.

All at once there was a roar from close by and Thord turned fast, gasping. Carabis too looked over, and a wicked grin crossed his face. Thord, mortified, backed fearfully away from the thing lumbering in his direction. "Run and don't stop or look back," he heard his mother urgently whisper in his head.

He considered arguing, looking worriedly at Elsa, but he got the feeling this wasn't a light command or one up for debate. The bear charged and Thord spun, fleeing as fast as he could in a straight line. Icy walls sprang up behind him to try and slow the beast, but it shattered them like they were glass and soon enough Thord felt the creature breathing down his neck. "Impale it!" he shouted frantically. Icy spikes shot from the ground, piercing up into the bear's abdomen. It bellowed in agony, lifted high above the ground. Carabis' powers quickly shattered the stakes, causing the bear to drop to the ground from a grant height and get up, albeit slowly. It bought Thord time to put some distance between them, but Mor'du was charging again soon enough.

"The fool is mine!" Carabis roared, tearing passed the bear and flying after Thord. Thord cried out as the sprite seized him, lifting him high into the air. It attempted to drop him, but an icy pillar shot up from the ground and Thord landed on it instead. He gasped, looking up, then rolled off the pillar as Carabis dive bombed him again. Another rose to catch him and he scrambled to his feet, bracing for Carabis' next dive. This time Thord dodged it and leapt onto the sprite's back, clinging tight and pinning its wings. It faltered and began to fall, fighting to get Thord under it. Thord managed to keep the upper hand in that, though. Goodness knew it probably wasn't often Carabis had had to bother with physical wrestling. Just before Carabis struck the ground, an icicle shot out from a cliffside and Thord seized it, sparing himself the full impact of crashing into the ground. The icicle broke and he did fall the rest of the way, landing in front of Carabis, but he didn't hit as hard as he otherwise would have. And now he was armed, so hey, bonus.

"Run from there! Now!" his mother screamed in his head so desperately it shocked him. He gasped, looking around, and stiffened, mouth dropping wide when he saw what had so panicked her.

There behind him towered a large, evil looking mirror…

Frozen

He gaped in horror at the object as the sprite slowly stood, a wicked grimace on its face. It looked behind it at the mirror. It reached into it, and from it he jerked a large, deadly looking shard. "Run, Thord, run!" his mother all but shrieked in his mind, sounding as if she were begging.

"Oh shit. Nope!" Thord exclaimed, turning and racing towards the trees. He tore into the glen like a bat out of Hades and raced back towards where he'd left Elsa. He had to get her out. He had to get them all out! Would she be able to hear him? Would she respond?

He didn't know by what miracle he managed to reach her unhindered, but he had. He ran to the icy shell and pounded on it. "Elsa!" he cried out. "Elsa, wake up! Wake up, please, we have to get out! Elsa! Dammit!" He ran to a rock, picking it up, and slammed it into the ice. "Elsa! Get! Up!" he shouted with each strike. The ice wasn't even dented! "Elsa!" he shouted. He tried to push the shell, but it was frozen to the ground.

"Leave her to your mother," a sunbeam urgently said.

"Run, young man, run," another pled.

"I'm not leaving without her!" Thord insisted, which was a far cry from where they'd started out. Though to be fair, Kristoff, Elsa, and Anna hadn't left him behind in the collapsing cave, so he guessed really it was just a far cry from where he had started out. Now he was just repaying the favor.

"You'll only doom yourself!" a third insisted. "Thord, you must…" She and the others were cut off when suddenly the sun disappeared, blotted out by an inky blackness that had crept from gods knew where and now left Thord alone. He gasped, looking up, and noted the utter silence that had come over the glade. He let out a shaking breath, looking up at the unsettlingly dark sky. Suddenly Carabis landed behind him heavily. Thord stiffened and slowly turned, eyes wide. The shard of the mirror glittered evilly in the hybrid's hand. His eyes fixed numbly on it.

All at once the creature tore across the space between them. Thord barely had time to cry out before he felt the shard stab into his stomach and cried out in agony, but before it could be buried fully within him, he heard a voice scream, "No!"

Suddenly Carabis was shoved back from him, releasing his grip on the protruding shard and leaving Thord to collapse back against the icy shell Elsa had encased herself in, bleeding and panting for breath in pain, clutching the glass and fearing it would try to burrow inside of him on its own, though he knew that was probably ridiculous. He looked numbly up at his rescuer and caught his breath. There, standing between him and a staggering Carabis, was the Ice Maiden herself!

"Mother," Thord said in shock, eyes widening and skin paling a bit. She looked back, her eyes travelling to the shard and the blood, and filled with pain and conflict. She turned quickly back to Carabis.

"Get out of my way," Carabis darkly ordered her.

"No," she answered, voice dark and angry. "I will not move."

"Get out of my way!" Carabis shouted.

"Thord, run," she ordered, looking back at her son again.

"He won't escape," Carabis said. She looked to the hybrid quickly. "You cannot protect him long, and he would not leave you to my mercy even if you could buy him all the time he would need to slip away."

Her jaw twitched. "I will not be at your mercy," she finally chose to answer.

"Nor will she fight you alone," another voice echoed. Carabis looked sharply over. There, crouching on a tree branch, was Vertigo, scowling menacingly at him. All around him in the trees appeared many other figures. All of Vertigo's brothers, doubtless incensed at the banishing of their wives from this place. Sun began to breach the darkness again, incensed maidens flickering in and out of view as its beams waxed and waned through the black, some other force working to drive away the darkness.

"Run," the Ice Maiden repeated to Thord.

"But Elsa…" Thord began.

"She is not your concern right now," the Ice Maiden sharply said, looking back at him. "Go!"

Thord looked nervously from Elsa to his mother then to Elsa again before letting out a shaking breath and wincing in pain. Was the shard stirring, he wondered in cold dread? He looked into his cousin's face. "I'll find a way to help you," he promised her. With that he moved around and began to stumble slash run for the cave he'd entered through to seek backup. Hans was here somewhere. He would not be kept from this place when he heard… He needed to find Hans, though goodness knew what good that would do at this point. If Carabis had forced Elsa into submission, he could likely do the same to her husband. If they were lucky, the Ice Maiden and Vertigo would solve this problem before he got back with his cousin-in-law, but he never put much stock in luck. That was a fool's errand.

Frozen

Hans walked along the river, arms wrapped tightly around himself as he searched for some clue as to where his child had gone. He didn't dare try and find Elsa.

Don't come home…

Tears pricked at his eyes, but he forced them away. Now wasn't the time for that. He needed to find Kay. Or at least learn that Elsa had. Then he could creep back out of this place with tail between his legs and go back to the Isles. If he was lucky, he'd drown at sea. He damned the stupid kelpie for not drowning him in the river already…

"Hans!" he heard a voice frantically call. A man's voice. He paused, looking quickly in its direction and bracing. Suddenly Thord stumbled from out of the woods doubled over and clutching… Hans' eyes widened and he gasped in horror, paling. Thord was clutching a shard of the mirror that was buried in his abdomen!

"Oh my gods!" Hans exclaimed, running to him and grabbing the panting and bleeding man's shoulders.

Thord looked up at him in pain. "Hans, it's Elsa. She found little Kay, but Carabis and Mor'du were waiting! They attacked her and she fought back, but she wasn't enough. She wasn't – Carabis is too powerful here!" he exclaimed, shaking his head. "He overpowered her and might have killed her, but she encased herself in an icy shell with the baby to protect herself and him. I tried to get her out, but I couldn't, and Mor'du and Carabis were after me and-and goddammit the shard and the mirror and the… Dammit!"

"Easy, easy," Hans quickly said in a reassuring tone he struggled to keep even but managed to, a bit of unease notwithstanding. He sat Thord quickly down, laying him against a rock. Thord clutched the shard, grimacing and shaking. "You're gonna be fine. We're gonna get this out. Ready? One, two…"

"Wait, wait, is this going to kill me?" he fearfully asked, seizing Hans' wrist.

"No. Not on my watch. But even if it was, that would be a better fate than letting it embed itself in you," Hans replied. "Tell me what happened. Tell me what happened to Elsa."

"We-we followed the sunbeams up-up a mountain. They brought us to a cave where…" Thord began. He screamed in pain as Hans suddenly jerked the shard in its entirety out of his body. "Goddammit!" Thord exclaimed in pain as Hans examined the piece of the mirror with bitterness, turning it in his hands. He looked to Thord, lay the shard aside, and let his hand alight with flame. "No, don't do…!" Thord screamed in agony, throwing his head back as Hans pressed the hand to the injury. "Oh gods!"

"You'll be fine," Hans said calmly. "Keep going."

"We went into the cave because they said it was where we needed to go to find your son! We went through and we heard him crying, but we knew it was a trap. Elsa wasn't going to just leave him! We agreed I'd stay behind while she went to get him and that if things went wrong, I'd go out and help her or find help if I couldn't manage it, so she went in and fifteen minutes later I hear this-this screaming and fighting, and I ran to help her but I-I was too late! I arrived while she was just finishing encasing herself and the baby in ice while the wicked hybrid's attack struck full force. I dove behind a boulder hoping it would protect me, and it did, and then-then I came out. I was so angry. I wasn't thinking. I ran at him. I just-just… and he attacked, but my mother, the Ice Maiden, she stepped in and for a moment it was like the powers were my own, she and I were so closely bound. We fought the sprite and for a while we were doing okay, but then Mor'du…" He trailed off, noticing Hans washing the shard off in the river. "What are you doing?" he asked immediately.

"What happened after Mor'du?" Hans asked, not answering.

Thord was silent, watching, then continued more carefully and slowly. "Carabis swept me away. He wanted to deal with me himself, I guess. I got away with my mother's help, but when we hit the ground and I turned around, it was there. The mirror. I saw the mirror, Hans. Then Carabis stood up and he reached into it and he ripped one of the replaced shards out, and my mother told me to flee. I didn't ask questions. I ran back to Elsa and tried to get her out, but I couldn't. I kept trying and trying until Carabis caught up with the shard, and the next thing I know that thing was stuck in my stomach and I was bleeding, then the Ice Maiden was there, forcing him back, and Vertigo and his brothers and the sunbeams wherever they could be, and they told me to run. That Elsa wasn't my concern anymore. I knew there was a chance they couldn't stand against Carabis and Mor'du, so I ran to find you. You and whatever other backup I might have been able to gather." Hans was quiet, staring at the shard. "Hans?" Thord tentatively asked after a long silence.

Hans closed his eyes, wrapping his hands around the shard. "You don't have to worry about your cousin. After today, he won't have any use for her anymore…" he finally said.

"What? What do you mean?" Thord asked. Hans was quiet. "Put the shard down, Hans," Thord said after a long moment, voice firm. He didn't need to wonder, anymore, what it was Hans was planning. "Just-just put the shard down… There's another way. There has to be."

"There isn't," Hans bitterly replied, standing up. "Don't worry about me. I'm used to its presence. You? Not so much. Go home, Thord. Or wait at the bottom of the mountain or here or wherever you choose to, for Elsa to find you."

"Hans, don't you flipping dare do…" Thord began. All at once Hans drove the shard into his stomach! Thord cried out in shock and alarm, white as a ghost. He gaped, slack-jawed, as the shard vanished inside of the young king while Hans grimaced and shuddered a bit. The writer swallowed and drew a slow, deep breath before letting it out in a stream of air and sinking down to his knees, arms wrapped around his abdomen and body shaking. "Hans…" Thord numbly whispered.

"After today, he won't have any use for her anymore," Hans finally managed to hollowly say. He staggered up. "We'll see how prepared Carabis truly is, to meet his own mirror." Turning on his heel, Hans marched away as Thord gaped after him in disbelief. Oh no…