Long Live the Queen
This is the first chapter of what will be a multi-chapter fic. It has already been posted on jedijae's account as chapter 7 of "The Service Log of A Arendelle"
If you are not familiar with the "Pin My Wings" modern au that jedijae created, you are missing a treat.
An au of the "Pin My Wings" au, which is the property of jedijae/thegeekogecko and written by grrlgeek72 with jedijae's kind permission. Also, "M.C. Fitzwilliam" is a character created and fleshed out by stillslightlynerdy (elym13 on tumblr). Revel Handler was originated by J.E. Glass.
We borrow each other's characters, don't you know?
Jae and I were kicking some concepts around and I came up with this one, because … well, you'll see.
Warning: I'm known for bar fights and wringing tears from my readers.
This story is not about bar fights. Bring hankies. Major character death. Don't say I didn't warn you!
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"To the Queen!" intoned Ensign Frollstern, the most junior officer at the table.
"The Queen!" responded the rest of the soldiers sitting around the table at the Inn overlooking the shore of the fjord in Arendelle city.
"My sister, long may she reign!" intoned Crown Princess Anna of Arendelle, then slammed back the glass of Brennevin. The rest did as well, having politely deferred to the Princess.
"Bartender, another round, here!" Anna waved at the woman making drinks.
"Uh, LT, are you sure that's smart? We've been wetting down those new Captain's bars for a while now!" Bit Lockhart was Anna's permanent bodyguard. Had been for several years. He still had a hard time keeping up with his young charge.
"Oh, chill, Bit! You sound more like Elsa with every passing year! And I am no longer an LT!" Anna's silly grin showed that she had indeed been celebrating her latest promotion for some time.
"You'll always be LT to me, LT. That first assignment of mine, chasing you through the damned African jungle dodging bullets kinda seared that into my brain!" Bit sipped at his drink, a fuzzy head was contraindicated for someone charged with keeping a Princess alive in the course of a rather daredevil life. Between dodging bullets from unfriendly strangers to flying SAR missions that few sane pilots would attempt, Bit was turning gray fast.
"Of course, Anna's mentor and role model ISN'T one of the few sane pilots, is she now?" Bit thought to himself.
He was referring to Colonel M.C. Fitzwilliam, USA, hotshot pilot and commanding officer of the US Army's Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Fitz, as she was known, had literally come swooping in to save both Bit and Anna in the course of that first mission. Anna had bonded with her immediately, like a duckling imprinting on its mother. And decided to emulate Fitz in every way possible, including becoming a helicopter pilot.
The party went on until the wee hours, long past the normal closing time of the establishment. But no bar, inn, or restaurant in Arendelle was going to kick out the Crown Princess. They'd keep serving until she staggered out on her own or the Queen sent someone to fetch her.
"It's unfortunate Elsa got called to Brussels to try to referee that dustup," Bit commented. Arendelle's neutrality and previous diplomatic work had led to Elsa being considered just the person to moderate some of the more contentious disagreements among the various pieces that fell out of the breakup of the European Union.
Anna shrugged. "I wish she had been here to pin on the bars, but we agreed to get together when she got back." Anna took a drink and said, wistfully, "I haven't seen enough of her thanks to this last deployment. It'll be good to spend some time together and catch up."
"Okay, last call! One more round and back to quarters!" Anna waved her glass at her comrades.
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"Wake up! Please wake up, Your Majesty!"
Someone was shaking Anna's shoulder and it made the pounding in her head worse. She pulled away and buried her face in her pillow and mumbled, "Go 'way, it's Sunday, no duty. Sleep!"
The shaking stopped, but Anna felt someone sit on the bed and caress her shoulder more gently. "Anna, please, wake up. We … need to talk."
Recognition of the voice penetrated Anna's hangover. It was Gerda. What was she doing in the BOQ of the Arendelle garrison? Anna tried to sit up, failed, but managed to roll over. "Gerda?"
The first voice spoke again, "Your Majesty, please! It's urgent!"
Anna's eyes were still tightly shut against the bright sunlight streaming through the window so she didn't see the glare of anger Gerda sent at the Admiral standing in the room.
A weak groan escaped Anna's lips as she wondered what the hell the man was babbling on about. "Her Majesty" was Elsa, not Anna. Anna was properly addressed as "Your Highness", until and unless something happened … to … the … Queen.
Anna sat bolt upright and stared at Gerda, all traces of alcohol dissolved by the adrenaline shooting through her body. "Gerda? What's wrong?"
Her face red, eyes brimming with tears, Gerda tried to speak and couldn't. Now Anna was frightened. She had never seen Gerda like this before. No, she had seen this before – the night Anna and Elsa had been told about their parents.
Throwing back the blankets, Anna sat up next to Gerda and looked around her room. Bit was standing just inside the door, arms crossed, his face a grim mask. The Admiral was the highest ranking officer in Arendelle's military, reflecting the maritime heritage of the Kingdom.
"What's wrong? Tell me!" Anna demanded.
Admiral Haldorsen stood to attention and said, "Your Majesty, it is my sad duty to inform you that Arendelle has lost its Queen in a tragic accident. Queen Elsa is dead. Long live Queen Anna of Arendelle." Then he bowed.
There. Those words. The words Anna had never ever wanted to hear. Elsa was … dead? No, this is just a drunken nightmare!
The stifled sob from Gerda jerked Anna up short. No, not a nightmare. Or rather, a nightmare of reality.
Anna put her arm around Gerda, trying to comfort the older woman while her own brain rattled around trying to make sense of what was happening. She knew she was in shock, that the impact hadn't hit with full force yet. That would come, it was inevitable, but for now there was a wrapping of fuzziness to her thoughts that was insulating her from the horror of losing Elsa, losing her sister.
"What happened?" Anna asked. "What kind of an accident?" Her voice was soft, a little rough.
The Admiral cleared his throat and said, "Her plane was on approach to Arendelle when we lost contact. It just fell off the radar. There was no radio calls of a Mayday, or any other indication that there was a problem. When we sent out a full Search and Rescue force, the Navy found a debris field about 5 miles out from shore. The markings indicate the wreckage was from the Queen's plane." He stopped, then went on, "There were no survivors found. Dive teams are going down to search as we speak."
"No survivors YET. You may not have found them YET?" Anna knew it was a slender reed to lean on.
"It is … unlikely, Your Majesty." Anna hated that title, she almost, ALMOST screamed at him to stop using it. "The water temperature this far north at this time of year would … be fatal within minutes."
"Not for my sister! Cold wouldn't bother her!" Anna was grasping at straws now.
"That's true. But I am sorry that I can't give you false hope, Your Majesty. The condition of the wreckage we found makes it unlikely that anyone survived the crash to make it into the water." He continued, "As I said, we have dive teams going down now." He cleared his throat again. "If I may be excused, Your Majesty? I need to get back to the command center and coordinate the search for the remains of the aircraft." He tactfully left out the part about remains of the people on board.
Anna nodded, she no longer trusted herself to speak. The Admiral left, Bit closed the door behind him, then sat heavily in one of the chairs. Anna leaned into Gerda, feeling the tears coming and no longer wanting to hold them back. She rocked back and forth in Gerda's embrace and let the grief take her.
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It was dark now.
Anna had gotten dressed, with Gerda's help, packed up her stuff from the BOQ and gone back to the Castle with Gerda, Bit, and a very grim squad of Queen's Own. At the castle, Anna refused to go into the Queen's Apartments, choosing her old room instead.
The day had been a whirlwind of meetings, conference calls, more meetings, and updates from the Admiral. The search effort continued through the night, as sunlight never penetrated to the ocean floor at the crash site in any case.
Search sonar had located what looked like wreckage at a spot where the water was about 500 meters deep. Special ROVs were being used to go down and map the debris field, but they were too small to be able to bring anything to the surface. The US Navy had volunteered one of their deep sea dive teams equipped with special atmospheric diving suits (ADS). They would arrive in the morning and go down and try to recover any … bodies.
Anna lay on her bed, her arm thrown across her eyes, no more tears for now, she had exhausted them for the time being. Her thoughts kept running around like a puffin on a hamster wheel.
A soft knock on the door pulled her out of her reverie. "What?" Anna snarled. She had left strict instructions that she was not to be disturbed.
"Anna, it's me, Bit. I wouldn't bother you, but Fitz called me. She tried to call you but it rolled right to voicemail."
"Ugh. Hang on, I think I turned my phone off last night and just threw it in my duffle." Anna dragged herself to the closet and rummaged around until the missing phone was located. "Come on in, Bit."
She cursed as the phone didn't immediately come to life. Dead battery, no doubt. Anna sat on the bed and pulled a charger out of the bedstand drawer, plugged it in, and waited for the phone to turn on.
Of course, there were a thousand missed calls and unread messages. Anna had some pretty strong filters on her phone, so there were probably ten thousand calls and messages from newsies and other professional snoops that never made it through.
Anna scrolled through the list, then stopped dead and dropped the phone.
Bit said, "Anna? What's wrong?" His charge had turned white as every bit of blood drained from her face.
"Elsa. There's a voicemail from Elsa …" Anna reached down, her hand visibly shaking, picked up the phone and managed to punch up voicemail after three tries. She stifled a sob as her sister's voice spoke to her.
"Hi, honey! We just took off from Brussels! Ugh! The usual nonsense – the Muscovians are stirring the pot again and now apparently Hans has decided to hitch his wagon to Imanovajov and Muscovia." Anna could hear the eyeroll in her sister's voice. The recording continued, "But enough of idiots trying to play dominance games. I'm really sorry I had to miss your promotion ceremony and I promise I'll make it up to you! I'm clearing my calendar for the next couple of days and we'll do all the special stuff we do when we haven't seen each other for too long!" Elsa's voice turned soft and gentle. "I love you, Anna. Miss you. Really looking forward to the warm hug I know you'll have for me! Bye for now!"
All Anna could do was stare at the phone in her shaking hand. She had missed Elsa's call because she had been in a drunken stupor and … the phone shattered against the wall as Anna threw it with every ounce of strength she had. Then she began to sob.
Bit wasn't sure what to do. He finally went and sat down next to Anna and put an arm around her. She turned into him and cried even harder while he tried to make soothing sounds and comfort her as best he could.
"I wonder if this really was an accident," Bit thought to himself. The Queen's airplane was probably better cared for and maintained than Air Force One. It was the very newest model of 12-passenger jet, sleek and modern, totally fly-by-wire with all the latest safety features. It was checked and re-checked every time the Queen was scheduled to use it. It was guarded around the clock by humorless Arendelle Marines, whether in its own hangar in Arendelle and even more vigilantly if it was somewhere else, like Brussels. NO ONE who was not a vetted citizen of Arendelle was allowed near that plane. It couldn't be sabotaged, not with that kind of security. Bit shrugged to himself and pushed the thought away.
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The next afternoon, Anna blew off everyone who wanted her attention and went to the Command Center where Admiral Haldorsen and his staff were coordinating the search effort. The US Navy team was at the wreck site and transmitting pictures of what they were seeing. The view was limited because the only light was from the lamps on the dive suits.
"It's the Queen's plane, all right." A voice with an American accent was speaking. "The tail number is visible on the chunk of fuselage that broke off." There was a grunt of effort. Moving around in the hard suits was non-trivial. "The rest of the fuselage is pretty broken up. Must have hit the water at high speed. We're going to check for … uh, passenger seats." There was silence except for the sibilant breathing of the diver.
Every eye was glued to the monitors that showed what the cameras on the dive suits saw. The water was murky, even with the spotlights from the dive lamps. Anna could see what looked to be seats, but they were crumpled and smashed. The lamp swung and there was what looked to be a body … The picture went to black.
"No, Your Majesty. We're not going to watch this in real time." Admiral Haldorsen interrupted what Anna was about to say. She had immediately turned to him when the screen blanked out. His face was grimly determined. "We're going to let the divers do their recovery, and bring our friends and our Queen back to us. But we aren't going to watch."
Anna suddenly realized that she didn't want to see what was down there. Because it had to be bad, very bad. She nodded, then tried to speak and failed. She cleared her throat and finally managed, "You're right, Admiral. I shall return to the castle and await your report." She rose from her chair and left, Bit Lockhart close behind.
Once he was certain she was gone, Haldorsen nodded to the operator at the console to bring up the pictures again. He had his duty.
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It took three days for the funerals.
The first day was for the crew of the aircraft, all long term veterans of service to the Crown. And the members of Elsa's staff that had accompanied her to Brussels.
The second day was for the Queen's Own, including Revel Handler, who all died guarding their Queen. Bit Lockhart was a stoic man, but Revel was an old friend, not just his boss. Now he had a new boss, Colonel Georg Hvammer, Revel's long time second in command. Hvammer immediately assigned more Queen's Own to Anna's detail, and made Bit their commander.
They had found Revel strapped into his seat, right next to the Queen. Most of Revel, at least. Same for the Queen. The crash had been catastrophic, the bodies broken and mutilated. No one could have survived.
The dive team had managed to find most of the pieces, the mortuary team had grouped them and identified everyone on the plane. There was no doubt about identification, but there would be sealed caskets for the funerals.
Bit shuddered as he remembered having to physically restrain Anna from going into the morgue. She kicked and screamed at him, but he wouldn't let her see her sister in death. "NO, Anna! You CAN'T! Dear lord, you won't be able to unsee that, you will never be able to remember her smiling and laughing." He picked her up, ignoring the fists pounding on his chest and the kicks to his legs. "You have to listen to me. I've made this mistake myself in my life, I won't let you do this!"
And so he carried her away, and took her to her room, and left her in Gerda's care. Kristoff was hovering outside the door when Bit came into the hallway. He and Anna had become good friends over the years they flew together. Bit thought there was more than just friendship stirring between them recently. Bit hoped so, Anna would need someone closer than a friend as she settled into being Queen.
"Not to mention heirs. There's no one right now," Bit thought grimly.
"How is she?" Kristoff asked, voice husky. He had admired Elsa and saw more of her than the average Arendelle citizen. Her death was that of a real person to him, not some ceremonial mannequin on a dais. Not to mention his pain for Anna's sake.
"Not good, Kristoff. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep her away from the morgue. She'll be pissed at me for a long time for that."
"It's the right thing to do, though, Bit. Eventually she'll realize that."
"I hope so." Bit sighed, shook his head, then said, "I need to go finish up the funeral arrangements for the day after tomorrow. Anna wants you as an official pallbearer, so if you don't have a full mess dress uniform, go get one. The tailor shop knows you're coming and you have an open account. Later."
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It had been 11 years since the last state funeral for a reigning monarch. Not long enough, as far as Anna was concerned. After her parents died, Anna had hoped that Elsa would live to be 100. And have lots of kids, so Anna could live her carefree life in the military. So much for that plan.
Since Elsa had been a player in international politics, there were many heads of state that had come to pay their respects. Including some Anna would just as soon have dumped in the fjord with rocks in their pockets, like Hans of the Southern Isles and Yuri Imanovajov. The only person in the Muscovian delegation that Anna didn't sneer at was Captain Aleksei Vasilek, Imanovajov's nephew. "No, COLONEL Vasilek, now. Promotion comes fast for favorite nephews of murderous despots," Anna's sour thought was unfair to the Colonel. She had saved his life during her Central African adventure, he really was a good guy. "And not a bad dancer."
Although there would be no dancing at this gathering.
Neema Sefu was there, of course, her small country had become stable and prosperous with the help of Arendelle and Arendelle's royals. Anna made sure that Neema had a place of honor, a much better place than Hans and Imanutjob. THEM she stuck in the last row of mourners, and would have left them on park benches in the city center if she had been able to convince her advisors to let her.
The US contingent included Colonel M.C. Fitzwilliam. Anna had asked Fitz if she was willing to be a pallbearer. Anna asked, rather than just telling Fitz, because Anna knew there was a long felt unrequited love that Fitz had for Elsa. If the thought of being a pallbearer, or even attending the funeral was too painful, she wanted Fitz to have an out.
"I would be honored, Your Majesty," Fitz had murmured. She was as unreadable as Bit, but Anna knew her feelings were deep and troubled.
And so Elsa was borne to her final rest by 8 specially chosen people, and another dozen honorary pallbearers following the caisson.
The citizens of Arendelle lined the road to the royal graveyard, holding candles or throwing crocus petals in front of the horse-drawn caisson. The mahogony and teak casket was large, draped with the flag of Arendelle and a huge bouquet of gold, purple and white crocus flowers.
At last the prayers and invocations were finished and Elsa's casket waited to be lowered into the ground next to her parents. The bishop said a final "Amen", then led the crowd of mourners away, leaving only a few behind. Anna and Kristoff. Bit and Fitz, Gerda and the rest of Elsa's personal staff.
Anna stared at the coffin and let the tears flow. She had held them back until now because she was the Queen, and had to set an example. She had finally given up on seeing Elsa, but had insisted that they put something of hers in with Elsa to take with her. It was a picture of the two of them from the aftermath of Anna's first parachute jump. Anna had landed in a pond, and was a muddy mess, and because she had picked her sister up in a bear hug, so was Elsa. They had huge grins on their faces as they faced Revel's phone camera, arms around each other, together again after a long separation.
"I'll never be the Queen you were, Elsa. Never. But I'll do my best to make you proud of me. I know you're with mama and papa, so at least there's that. Hug them for me." Anna leaned over and kissed the polished wood of the coffin.
She turned away and looked at her family and friends. "Okay. It's done. I've got the duty now. Long live the Queen." There was a bitter taste to her words. She was sure that bitter taste would linger. For now, she had her duty to perform.
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Author's note: grrlgeek72 here. So jedijae and I were kicking around plot bunnies and this particular bunny hopped out of the pile and so jae said, "write it!" and so I did.
And then it turned out that the plot bunny had plot bunnies, and this is just the first chapter of what apparently is going to be a longer multi-chapter fic in an au of the "Pin My Wings" universe. We're postied this first chapter in "Service Log of A Arendelle", and will post the rest of the story on my fanfiction dot net account.
An alternate universe to an alternate universe. In the REAL "Pin My Wings" universe, Elsa is alive and well and thumping her head on her desk at the antics of her feisty little sister and jae has many good plot ideas that don't involve the tears of her readers.
Ain't fanfiction grand?
All subsequent chapters will be published here. Buckle up, friends of Arendelle. This has all the earmarks of a spy thriller.
And if you haven't read "Pin My Wings", why not? Go, shoo, read! Also 'Once and Future Queen' by jedijae. I love her modern au's because the two sisters are perfectly in character. In too many modern au's they are so generic they need nametags for us to recognize them. (OaFQ is a slow burn elsanna yarn, BTW)