Corrupt

(A/N: And here is what should be the final chapter of this story. Elsa has an epiphany courtesy of Hans. May change the ending a bit depending on how it goes over with readers, but if something you wanted to see but didn't is lacking from this chapter, let me know. Either I'll fit it into the next story I write, the 'season premier' or part three of my series, or I'll revise this chapter a bit.)

The Ice Maiden was on the ground, panting for breath and weakened in their battle against the evil hobgoblin. She was not in her element here. Her element, in fact, had precious little bearing on this place. If anything, Vertigo was of more use than she at this moment. Vertigo who stood between her and Carabis with his brothers. The darkness had dissipated, she suspected such was courtesy of the elfin king, and the sunbeams had joined the action once more. Yet despite all of it, they knew their cause was lost. The sunbeams' element was warmth, and their husbands' elements were variations of their eldest brother's. They could do precious little to fend off the evil hobgoblin. Especially not now, when Carabis had brought out backup of his own…

The bear was there now, snarling and cruel.

"You should have stayed out of my way, Ingrid," Carabis darkly said to the Ice Maiden, calling her by her middle name. The name she used to prefer and still did sometimes. He soared towards her, but suddenly a surge of wind sprang up and formed a vicious, howling wall between them and the sprite, blocking him from attacking.

The Ice Maiden gasped, looking towards it. "Father," she whispered.

"About time," Vertigo complained.

"Don't antagonize him. We have to go," the Ice Maiden said breathlessly to her husband. Vertigo glanced at her, then back. "You can only do so much causing them to fall to the ground," she said. "And I can only do much in an element of spring. We can't stay here. We are all but powerless."

"I know," he answered gravely. At best they'd been able to fend the two off, but they couldn't keep it up much longer. He turned to her. "There is Hans, coming up the mountain. He seeks this place. He seeks Elsa."

"What does that mean?" she asked. He shook his head. He didn't know.

Vertigo turned to his brothers, each one of them intensely annoyed by their uselessness in this scenario. "Fly," he ordered them. They turned to him a moment before nodding in understanding and vanishing with their wives the sunbeams.

"Elsa," the Ice Maiden whispered, looking towards her niece.

"She will be alright," Vertigo promised. "If Hans cannot manage it, your father will." The Ice Maiden nodded. Mor'du roared and charged. Carabis flew towards them as well. The Ice Maiden scowled, closing her eyes, and together she and Vertigo vanished, leaving the wicked sprite and Mor'du behind. Almost immediately the windy wall ceased.

Carabis and Mor'du charged passed where it had been and came to a stop to see their opponents vanished. The bear looked around and sniffed at the air. A low growl began in his throat as he turned to look in the direction of the entrance into this glen. "What is it?" Carabis asked. The bear chuffed. "Ah…" Carabis said, looking towards it too. "So comes the young King." He closed his eyes and started before opening them again, looking vastly amused. "He took another shard within himself…" he said, clearly pleased with this turn of events. Mor'du gave him a look before huffing and turning, lumbering away. "You're just going to leave?" Carabis asked. Mor'du growled again. "Mine to play with for a while, hmm? And play I shall," Carabis replied. Quietly he took to the trees to lie in wait…

Frozen

Hans searched the glade quietly. It was beautiful here… He clearly saw that, but found it mattered little to him. He felt no pleasure in it… And that realization that should have scared him or put him at ease? He found he didn't care. He couldn't bring himself to. Whether it was because of the new shard or because of what had happened between him and Elsa, he didn't know. It didn't matter anymore anyway. He stopped dead in his path when he came upon a clearing. In the center of that clearing he saw his wife encased inside her icy shell, her gown torn to shreds and her hair half out of its braid, the loose strands draped over the tiny form of their infant son clutched firm in his mother's arms… His mouth quivered in grief because for just a moment he could have sworn they were dead…

Chameleon King, become the mirror once again.

He drew a breath, straightening himself up, and called, "Carabis!" Carabis perked up a bit, intrigued at this development. "Carabis, I know you're watching!" Carabis was silent, pondering the words. Soon he vanished and reappeared right in front of the young King.

Hans paused, when Carabis appeared before him, and stepped back before narrowing his eyes and setting his jaw. Silence lingered. Carabis stared hard at him. Hans held the gaze unwaveringly. "Another shard is within you," the hobgoblin finally said to the young king.

"Yes," Hans answered.

"Why?" Carabis asked.

"To keep it safe," Hans answered. "It can do no good loose and wild, but within me? I suppose we'll find out."

"We?" Carabis asked.

Hans turned to look back at the icy shell. "There's nothing left for me here," he finally said. "The nokk sensed the lies in my heart. You can well guess the rest from there."

"She banished you," Carabis noted in amusement. "She left you."

He swallowed and bowed his head, closing his eyes tightly and painfully. "There is nothing for me here…" he numbly repeated. Soon he looked up at Carabis again. "My wife and son are of no use to you anymore. Let my life and freedom be the price I pay for my family's safety. May it be the final act of love I grant them, and then I'm yours… Yours to do with as you wish."

Carabis's eyes were wide in excitement. The young man was serious about this, he realized. Dead serious. "You're offering yourself to me," he noted in blatant amusement. Hans was quiet, head bowed. "Say it," Carabis growled.

"I'm offering myself up to you," Hans confirmed bitterly.

Carabis almost cheered the words, but he restrained himself. His smirk became wicked and victorious. "Go. Free your wife and child. And make certain there's no chance she will regret leaving you behind with me," he answered.

"That isn't going to be a problem," Hans answered, eyes fixed on the icy shell once more. At least not at this point… He let out a shaking breath, closing his eyes.

Chameleon King, become the monster you both knew you were…

When he opened his eyes, there was no reflection of a man in them anymore. He was certain of it. There was only the mask of the monster and the mirror. He approached the icy shell, and reached out to it, lighting his hands with his flames and gradually starting to melt through the enchanted ice with enchanted flame. Slowly the icy shell disappeared until he paused, at last, when their baby was freed from the icy shell. It left most of her frozen within as well, but that was something she could deal with on her own from there… He had intended to give her the honor of executing him anyway, rather than the kelpie…

He reached out to her, gently brushing strands of loose hair out of her face and tracing it before coming to rest against her cheek, warm and firm. The baby began to cry. He looked tiredly at it, eyes filling with such pain… Quickly he willed that pain away, willed his eyes to become stoic and dead again, and looked at Elsa, who began to stir and made a soft, unsettled noise as her eyes started to flicker. He slid his hand beneath her chin, lifting her head to him, and prayed the mask would still be enough to hide himself from her. Her eyes were glazed and unfocused as they opened, finally, falling on him.

"Hans?" she said in a weakened, hoarse voice. He tilted his head at her, summing her silently up and waiting for her to come to her senses again. "Hans," she realized for certain this time, voice firmer and more guarded now. She became aware of her baby crying. He looked down at the child. She followed his gaze, staring at the sobbing baby, and her expression softened immensely. Gently she stroked Kay's tiny cheek, prompting him to turn to try and suckle at her finger. She stared at him as if amazed to find him still there. She looked back to Hans again and an uneasy prickle ran through her spine. His expression as he gazed at his child… It was stoic and dead. "Hans?" she tentatively asked a third time, a hint of unease and concern in her voice now. He looked back at her, tilting his head again as if trying to find something within her that he'd seen before but couldn't see now.

Staring at her as if he was trying to understand why he felt nothing…

"Hans," she said more urgently now, and he smiled, but when he smiled… Horror went through her. The smile was cruel. Sadistic. Twisted.

Wrong. His smile was just wrong. It was like it had been before…

She barely dared breathe as she stared into those bitter eyes and that deceitful face, angelic in beauty but warped with evil.

There lived, once upon a time, a wicked prince whose heart and mind were set upon conquering all the countries of the world, and on frightening the people. He devastated their countries with fire and sword, and his soldiers trod down the crops in the fields and destroyed the peasants' huts by fire, so that the flames licked the green leaves off the branches, and the fruit hung dried up on the singed black trees.

"Hans!" she cried out frantically, the icy shell melting partially away as she reached out, cupping his cheek almost frantically. For a moment, just a moment, he almost wavered in his resolve. His hand came up to cover her own gently, but without warning suddenly his grip tightened almost crushingly, causing her to gasp in pain. He jerked her hand away from his cheek but clung tight to it still. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with her husband? She felt herself shivering, and her baby screamed and wailed and kicked in fear as if sensing everything was so very wrong…

He made a looking glass which had the power of making everything good or beautiful that was reflected in it almost shrink to nothing…

"Oh Elsa…" Hans practically purred.

"No," she gasped, shaking her head in denial. "Please," she whispered. "Don't say it."

He shook his head. Part of him begged him to stop, begged him to stop this madness, but there was nothing for him here anymore…

"Don't come home…"

She meant it then and she still meant it now… But for a brief moment, he feared he had let the mask slip for only a second…

"If only there was someone who actually loved you," he growled darkly, and half of him screamed at him in wrath and rage and disgust, but the other part told him it was for the best. They would be safe now… Carabis would have no further use for them, when he already had him.

The look of grief and hurt and betrayal that crossed her expression… He wanted to blind himself, but it wasn't as if he would be far off from that, once Carabis had him at his mercy. But the hours that would pass before he could finally forget that look… They would be the most torturous hours of his life.

Grief and hurt and betrayal became anger and wrath and pain, her emotions welling up inside of her and the glade starting to freeze all around them. Then, with a shriek of fury, her icy shell shattered all around. He felt the stinging pain inside of his heart, crying out and covering it, bending over, but her icy shards were too late to possess it. A more powerful occupant resided within already and obliterated them. When he looked up, she was gone, a faint form of a woman of ice disappearing in a blizzard. He gasped again, grimacing at the chill he felt overtaking the vital organ her ice shards had struck, but soon enough he was numbed to it and felt nothing at all. He straightened up, drawing in a shaking breath.

"Perfect… Now you are mine, Mirror King," Carabis darkly cooed. Hans let out a wavering stream of air, closing his eyes. He had always been, he inwardly answered. "Come," Carabis commanded. Hans shook his head and turned, walking into the glen. He needed no direction. He already sensed the mirror. It called to him…

Frozen

Elsa ran and ran, blinded by tears. Where she was running, she didn't know and didn't care, she just kept going.

"No… I will not give them up for you or for our son…"

A broken sob escaped her lips as she furiously wiped at her eyes.

"If only there was someone who actually loved you."

No. No, no, no, no!

"Do you love me?"

"What? Elsa, of course I do! Question anything else about me, anything, just not that! Please! Please, my darling, not that. Never that!"

There had been no lie in his words then. Where had that love gone now?

You took it from him.

She stopped in her tracks and pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead, shaking her head in denial.

"Don't come home."

A grieved cry escaped her lips.

"Elsa!" a voice cried out urgently. She broke down, sinking to the ground. She recognized it. Her cousin. All at once he was there, his arms clinging to her shoulders in a grounding manner. Gradually she became aware of her child screaming and wailing in her arms.

"I killed him! I killed him!" she wept in grief. "I killed my husband!"

"What?" Thord asked, pale. Carefully he tried to pry her child from her arms before she could injure him in her high emotional state. She seemed to sense what he was doing, and he counted his blessings she didn't just flash freeze him on the spot for touching the baby, instead of allowing him to take it.

"I killed my husband," she sobbed.

"What does that even mean?! Elsa, you didn't… please, tell me that's not what you mean!" he exclaimed in despair.

"It would have been kinder if I had killed him in that manner," she hollowly answered. Thord breathed a sigh. That meant Hans was still alive, question mark? It was a matter of what 'alive' meant, in this situation.

"Elsa, what happened?" he said, laying the child down on some soft grass and moving in front of his cousin, firmly holding her shoulders so she would focus on him. She broke down anew and told him everything…

Frozen

Thord held Elsa tightly in his arms. She had fallen into a muted silence, after telling him what had happened, but that silence had eventually led to a state of calm. She was cradling her child again and had finally soothed the infant into a restless sleep. "You haven't lost him… He isn't dead," Thord finally worked up the nerve to say.

"You didn't see his eyes," she whispered. "You didn't see his face… I killed him…"

"You're wrong!" Thord said. He pushed her back, causing her to gasp in surprise. "I fought against Carabis, when I went after you. My mother was there. She helped me. It was almost as if I controlled her element myself… No, I don't have powers. I never have never will. I was just stupid and she stopped my stupidity from costing me my life. That's beside the point. The point is that that battle came to an end when we found the mirror." Elsa tensed up, bristling. "Carabis pulled out a shard and chased me down with it and stabbed me, but it didn't go all the way in. My mother stopped him before he could manage that. I staggered away bleeding and wounded, and I found your husband and he took it from my body and put it in his own. He told me that after today, Carabis wouldn't have any use for you anymore, and I understand why now. Because Carabis would have him instead!" Elsa stared at him pale, her lips drawn tight together as she understood what he was saying. "He said we would see how truly prepared Carabis was to meet his own mirror, and he went after you. Stop your mourning, cousin. There isn't anything to mourn! Not yet! Your husband still loves you, and whatever you saw in him up there, when he looked into your eyes with his own dead, and spoke those evil words…"

"It was a mask," Elsa breathed, standing quickly up and looking shaken to her core. "I should have seen it."

"I don't blame you for not seeing it. This hasn't exactly been an easy or unemotional day!" Thord replied, rising as well. "But enough with the mourning and grief and self-pity, stop with the feelings of betrayal and hurt, and get a grip, girl! You're strong, and you know that this isn't over until it's over. You can still stop him. You can still save him."

"And what am I supposed to do then? Pretend the truths he spoke never happened?" Elsa demanded.

"If you two need some time apart to cool down and get your heads straightened out, that's okay, but you can work through this without needing to do that. Exchange truths for truths maybe! I find it hard to believe you don't have lies in your own heart that would hurt him as badly as he hurt you. But don't leave it at that. Ask about the 'whys' behind those truths, and speak about the 'hows' in regards to how you're both managing them. Things can still be mended between you two, but you can't mend broken hearts when you're speaking to a tombstone, goddammit Elsa. Save your husband from himself. I'll watch little Kay, I'll keep him safe and bring him back to Anna, but focus on getting yourself and Hans out of this place alive. Promise me!"

"Take him," Elsa breathed, pressing her baby into her cousin's arms. "Take him!" she cried out again, turning and racing forward, forming an icy sleigh and conjuring her icy mare again. She stepped up into it and whipped her mare to action. It whinnied, rearing up, then charged towards the mountain once more.

"Yes!" Thord whispered in a cheer. He looked down at the baby in his arms and grimaced, noting its watering eyes. "No," he groaned. On cue the baby broke down into tears screaming and wailing. He regretted everything, Thord bitterly decided. Grumbling he turned, marching agitatedly away to try and find the stupid elven king or the stupid nokk so he could go back to stupid Ahtohallan and shove this squealing brat off on his probably freaking out other cousin, who was stuck on a stupid ship frozen in the middle of a stupid sea! Gods he hated his life! "Oh will you please shut up?!" he demanded of the baby who was probably wailing too loudly to even be able to hear him anyway. He swore to the gods, if he had to sing… He shuddered at the thought. Oh dammit, he was gonna have to sing. He sighed, closing his eyes. What was that song Elsa had sung to the baby? Oh yeah…

"Vargen ylar i nattens skog

Han vill men kan inte sova

Hungern river i hans varga buk

Och det är kallt i hans stova

Du varg du varg, kom inte hit

Ungen min får du aldrig.

Du varg du varg, kom inte hit

Ungen min far du aldrig."

In the forest, he heard a high, beautiful voice echo him with haunting hums to accompany the melody. He didn't have to wonder, to know who. His mother…

Frozen

Hans stared tiredly up at the mirror towering before him, menacing and imposing. He drew his hand across the glassy surface, paying little heed to when the unfused pieces cut his fingers. It was a sort of pain he could tolerate… "I hear you. I am you," he murmured to it quietly. He and his brother might as well have been born from it, say the first three. He was barely aware of thin streams of blood from his cuts slipping down the surface. He watched them in morbid fascination.

"Take a piece. Then another. Then another," Carabis darkly prompted from behind, a cruel, wicked smile on his lips. Hans stared silently. "Take it!" Carabis barked sharply, almost viciously. Hans barely flinched. "Take it, or I will," Carabis snarled.

Hans closed his eyes then opened them once more, steeling himself for this. He took hold of one of the shards, paused just a moment, then pulled it free and cradled it in his hands, quietly staring. After a moment he shut his eyes once more, placing the tip of the glass at his breast and preparing to drive it in...

"Sometimes I am afraid of you, Chameleon Prince," a soft voice spoke from behind. Hans's eyes slowly opened to look into the mirror. There, in its reflection, he saw Elsa in her icy form standing tall on her sleigh. Carabis' head whipped around to stare at her in shock and disbelief, taken aback by her audacity. "I am afraid of you," she said in a pained whisper as if to speak those words shattered her heart. "Some nights, after a particularly bad nightmare, I wake up and your soothing touch causes me to shudder in dread, but you suspected as much already, didn't you?" Hans was still and quiet, looking miserably down at the shard positioned at his breast. She stepped from her sleigh and moved towards him before pausing once again. "But only sometimes," she finally dared to press. "Less and less, as the years go by."

"Take your little bastard and your supernatural boyfriend and go home," Hans answered, forcing his voice to come out rough and dangerous.

"More than I fear you, I fear what you do to yourself," she said. "I fear what you might do… Not to me, but to you. As the years creep by, those nightmares come more readily, and I wish for the others because in them your anger and hate are directed at me and not at yourself. On days when our fights are particularly bad, or when something particularly painful has happened in some correspondence between you and your brothers, or on days when my people have been particularly cruel and I see you hide yourself away in the library and study, I look in and I see you on the window seat near to tears, and I am terrified that if I shut that door, I'll only open it again onto a body…"

"Leave," Carabis darkly threatened her, rising. She didn't even look at him.

"Is it fear of yourself, that drives you to tears? Fears of what you might do that will finally cost you everything? Cost you me?" she pressed on. Hans let out a shaking breath, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. "Are you afraid of what you might do to me?"

"Yes," he answered almost before the question had left her lips.

She went silent. "I'm afraid of what I might do to you too," she finally said. It caused him to open his eyes again and look slowly up back into the reflection.

"Enough!" Carabis shouted, sending out an attack. Elsa threw out her hand, erecting a thick wall of ice between herself and Hans and Carabis.

"I know why the nokk claimed I was so far beyond you, now… My mother was the daughter of the North Wind, Hans. The daughter of Boreas. She was Ullr's child… And I was hers," Elsa said, voice breaking a bit. That startled him, and this time he turned around only to see Elsa looking normal. He glanced in the mirror. In its reflection she was the imposing figure of ice. Her worst form, he wondered to himself? But that didn't matter, now. He turned to her again in disbelief. She smiled weakly. "But I'm not as far beyond you as it thinks I am," she said. "More mortal than divine at this point." Hans was silent, watching her. Her smile fell as her eyes found the glittering shard. She heard Carabis, enraged, trying to break through. She let the ice grow up all around them when she heard the roar of the bear coming too. "Take that shard away from your chest," she pled. He was still. "Why?" she asked.

"Why what?" he finally let himself question, releasing a heavy sigh as his shoulders sagged and his eyes closed.

"Why won't you give them up?" she pressed. He was silent, though to her relief the shard was moved away from his chest. He stared quietly at it. "Why?" she asked again.

"Because they are all that I have left to protect you with. You and Kay, your family our friends, and even my brothers on a good day… Swords and guns have failed, my powers have proven to be not enough, and all that remains is the mirror. And the mirror I was without them is not enough. I'm never enough," he answered, shaking his head.

"Yes you are," she replied in a breaking voice. "And you aren't left alone to defend all we love by yourself… I am here. Your brothers are here. Our family and our friends are here… I will protect you too, whatever the cost."

"Go home, Elsa," he answered, bowing his head. "I will give him no further reason to hurt you all anymore… Hans Christian Westergaard died long ago."

"What about Hans Christian Andersen? What will the world do without his tales?" she asked, a teasing but sad smirk pulling at her lips. He huffed a laugh, and it was good. At least that single thing was something good. Her smile fell. "Come home," she pled. "Whatever challenges might arise between us, we'll face them. Just come home."

He shook his head. "No," he said in a surprisingly resolved tone. He chuckled quietly and finally looked up at her. His smile fell. "No," he repeated.

"It wasn't a question," she answered. "I won't leave here without you."

"Forget me," he commanded, stepping towards her.

"No," she repeated, holding her ground.

"Then perhaps he should forget you," a dark, terrifying voice asked, and both Elsa and Hans gasped, turning quickly. There, floating down from above, was Carabis who finally had clawed his way through the barrier. In his hand was a cup of water. Hans's shoulders slumped tiredly as he stared at the cup. Elsa, lips parted in worry, looked from Carabis to Hans, who wouldn't meet her eyes, then back.

"Stay away from him!" she ordered quickly, getting between them.

"You might stop me, but will you stop him?" Carabis asked.

Elsa felt her heart sinking. She felt her husband's hand on her shoulder and swallowed, closing her eyes. "Don't," she whispered to him.

"Let whoever you love and marry next be the only father our son knows he ever had… I never lived, nightingale and Snow Queen. I never existed," he murmured in response.

"Stop it. Don't…" she began, turning to him. She was met instead by his lips pressing gently against hers, cutting her off. Her mouth quivered as she closed her eyes and curled her fingers into his shirt.

After a moment, Hans drew back. "Let yourself be free of all of this. Free of Carabis, free of the mirror, free of Mor'du… Live in peace and safety all the rest of your days for the sake of our son," he murmured, nuzzling her gently. She was silent, tears burning in her eyes. "Would you give the mirror up for me?" he asked, lips pressed against her hair. She let out a gasping breath, feeling herself trembling again. "Would you give it up for our son?" he asked solemnly. "So that Carabis has no use for you anymore. So that you can both be safe..." She understood the question he was really asking. It wasn't a matter of giving up the mirror. It was a matter of giving up him… He was the mirror… He had always been the mirror.

Her mouth quivered as she shook her head. The question wasn't half as easy to answer as it should have been… "No," she whispered, and to her horror, it was for a far more selfish reason than his had been… He felt his hands tighten on hers in displeasure, but she knew also that he understood why she had answered as such.

"Then you're as addicted to it as I," he said. "And as delusional, to believe that you'll be able to have your cake and eat it to." His voice was darker now, but not without purpose, and she felt no fear of it. Only despair. She stayed silent.

He had reflected her, and he had seen she was ugly…

He had caused her to see too… Oh how she saw, and she knew that there was no defense she could make…

She felt disgust. For herself.

"This. Must. Happen," he said.

He was right… She knew he was right…

He pulled away from her and walked passed, moving towards Carabis. She was still, letting out a shaking breath. She looked numbly towards the mirror. A cheap mockery, she thought, and though she tried to ration to herself that it had existed before Hans had even been born, still it seemed little more than a knockoff. No… No, it wasn't a matter of its being a knockoff. It was the original, and it was hers… It was hers because Hans was hers… She would not let the mirror go because she would not let him go. So he was taking that choice away from her because he was the mirror and he controlled the mirror, and it could not corrupt him because he was already what it was… But it was corrupting her… He was corrupting her… Corrupting her as he threatened to corrupt Ahtohallan, because he was the mirror. It was never him looking into it and desiring it and its power. It was her.

But she couldn't give it up… She wouldn't give it up. She turned her head sharply, eyes narrowed. He was hers.

Hans was reaching out, taking the cup from Carabis' hands. "Wait!" she said quickly. They both paused, turning to her. "Not yet," she heard herself whisper. Hans looked confused. Carabis, though, perked up, for Carabis was half fae, and the fae knew a bargain when one was about to be struck…

"Not yet?" Carabis asked, and the intrigue in his voice was palpable.

"Give me more time," she pled. "Let me have more time… Before I have to say goodbye." Hans seemed lost, but Carabis… He knew… He had caught on long ago. A sinister smile crept across his lips.

"You love him so much," the hobgoblin murmured in amusement. Darkly he chuckled. "And what do you offer in exchange for more time?"

Hans started, somewhat catching onto the implication if not the meaning, and immediately attempted to drink the water. Carabis was swift to dash it violently out of his hands, causing him to leap back. "Elsa, what are you doing? Stop!" Hans ordered quickly, turning to her fast.

"Nothing," she replied to Carabis, all but ignoring her husband. She shook her head. "I offer you nothing." But faerie bargains did not always have to have the clauses laid out… You asked them for a boon, they granted it, but when the time was right, they would be paid in full. You didn't have to know when, you didn't have to know how, you just had to know that they would…

Carabis full out laughed, this time, tossing his head back. It was a wicked cackle that filled the air and sounded more victorious than anything he had ever uttered before, and it chilled both the Queen and her King to the bone. "Take him, powerful Snow Queen! Take your Fire King back. I will grant you more time, as you request; but should you try to prevent me from receiving my payment when it is due, the cost will be something greater than you could have ever imagined. Only a fool bargains with the Fair Folk! You are twice that fool, it seems." With another cackle, Carabis vanished along with the mirror…

Frozen

Elsa let out a breath of air. Hans was silent, staring at where Carabis had been. "What have you done?" he finally, darkly, asked.

"I don't know," she answered in a whisper. "I'm sorry."

He turned to her. She wouldn't meet his eyes for her shame… "You may have cost us everything," he said. She sniffed, looking at where the mirror had been and rubbing her arms vulnerably. She knew… Oh how well she knew… "On the other hand, you may also have bought us time to prepare," Hans finally continued. She looked over at him. Approval, she wondered hopefully?

He looked at the shard still in his hands and her heart sank. "Don't," she said tiredly, but she knew it was pointless to ask.

"Whatever form it takes, I will do what I have to, to defend this family," Hans answered.

She was silent but soon approached and reached out to the glass, touching it gently and freezing it. She examined the shard in silence then looked up to him. "You are mine. For all eternity," she whispered to him.

"Eternity…" he murmured in response, staring at the shard. He looked at her and offered a small smile. "Sounds like a plan," he added.

She smiled and looked at the shard again. Her smile fell. "Don't ask me to watch," she said, turning and walking away. He watched after her. He had no intentions of asking her to watch… He looked at the frozen shard once more and pursed his lips.

Give me more time…

He let out a breath and tucked the shard out of sight. They would have more time, he determined. And he would not taint that time they'd been granted further than he already had. They would return to Anna and the others, they would go home to Arendelle, and they would raise their child in as much peace as they could manage. The shard would be there tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. The shard would be there for all of eternity…

Epilogue

Mor'du roared in rage at the sprite who returned empty handed with the mirror, but Carabis did not quail this time. Instead he kept on wearing that self-satisfied smirk on his lips. "I have not turned my back on you. I will help you still. But for now, my role in this is done. Perhaps for years." Mor'du bellowed in fury and Carabis's smile fell as he flinched back before frowning. "There are others at your disposal," he answered. Mor'du chuffed. Carabis' jaw twitched. Mor'du began to growl and huff again. "The Knights... They are a tempting prize at that… Hmm… Simply because I do not choose to move against the young prince now, or intend to any time soon, does not mean I'll be idle… Elsa will not adhere to her bargain, when the time comes, and he would not let her suffer it even if she did. We must be ready for that."

Mor'du huffed in response. Carabis hummed and brought forth the mirror. "There are shards yet missing, before it will be ready to take the young King on as its new casing. I have my suspicions of the location of one of them, pieced back together from the grains it was crushed into." He waved his hand over the mirror and revealed two separate images. Mor'du growled in intrigue. "Yes, the doctor. Henry Jekyll… And his counterpart Edward Hyde," Carabis said. He looked at Mor'du. "And there is a shard still within you…" Mor'du almost seemed to chuckle at the remark. He was fully aware of that, Carabis knew. He looked to the mirror again, running a hand over its shards. "Until those shards are pieced back together in the casing, every shard in its proper location say the ones trapped inside the young prince, there is no point in attempting to merge him with the mirror. Which means I may still have use for these." He removed a handful of small shards from the glass, forming them in a pile on the ground. Mor'du looked them over and huffed. "Yes. I'm down an army, you see, and an army is quite useful. Mine was decimated. Only a minority made it back, though that minority is still sizeable, just not sizable enough. And army is certainly something we may need in the years to come, as the Snow Queen's extended time with her husband draws to a close. Can you guess what my intention is?"

Mor'du snorted in response. Carabis frowned. "I'm aware you planted the idea in my head," he dryly replied. "No need to rub it in." He turned to the shards once more and picked one up, turning it in his fingers and smirking cruelly. One-hundred-fifty small shards… That's all it may take, to bring the world to its knees." He darkly laughed. Mor'du growled. "Yes. The Knights of the Round Table will soon come out to play… But we may need help in that." Mor'du growled. "Of course the child! But we will not be able to easily access him. Dr. Jekyll, though… Or should I say Mr. Hyde? All we need is to recombine the two halves into a whole, and Jekyll himself may already be developing intentions to do that for us. Before you know it the good doctor will become the most traitorous, deadly ally we have ever possessed. Then Mordred will be." Darkly the wicked sprite laughed. Mor'du watched silently and inwardly smirked.

(Final A/N: Well this was a story and a half. And as the twelfth story in my series, it serves as the 'season finale' for the second half of said series. Hopefully it didn't disappoint as one. I admit, this was one of the most difficult ones I've had to write yet as I try to draw in some of the strings and start working towards the grand finale, whenever that may come. My plan initially was to have only two 'seasons', then it became 'three'. Thus far it's stayed there, but depending on how many more ideas I end up developing, who knows? Three could well become four, but I'm not making promises on that. As it stands, my plan is that the third part of the series will be the last one, and that it too will consist of six books. Again, that's not set in stone, but we'll see where this adventure takes us. I suppose.

I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed this story and had as much fun reading it as I hope you did. It was a task writing it, though some parts I really got into. I'm hoping the wait for the next story won't be overly long, but I'm not going to make promises about that. Still, my hope is to get it up in a timely fashion.

Thank you to all those who have reviewed my stories and shared ideas. Particularly one reviewer who at this point might as well be a co-writer for all the ideas and thoughts I've bounced off them or been given by them. Pretty well an unofficial beta reader by now, honestly. Special thanks to them. Would have taken a lot longer to get this story done without their help, for sure. Again, I hope you all enjoyed and thanks for your patience and sticking by me despite my not always consistent schedule. I know I have a bad habit of keeping you all waiting for a long time sometimes, and I'm really sorry for that. Until next time, goodbye.)