Hi, so here is another chapter, the first part of the Season 4 arc I am doing and we are now only seven more chapters away from finishing this story!

There are some edits done to this story due to the AU nature so please keep that in mind.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

As there is no Marian in this story that whole chunk of the Frozen Arc will be replaced or glossed over. Also the whole dagger/hat plot thing might not be mentioned either simply because this story will end with the Frozen Arc and everyone will get their happy ever after.

Please Read and Review.

The Summit Of My Desires

Chapter 23-In The Blink Of An Eye.

The first part of Season 4, Part 1 and the final part of this story. Liam and Elsa attempt to enjoy their happiness as Elsa's magic gets increasingly out of control. Killian wants Liam and Emma to reconcile and Elsa meets Ingrid the woman who is helping her out at the shop.

Storybrooke. After Zelena.

It should have been perfect. Certainly the town seemed in perfect harmony. Emma and Killian had come back from the past without bringing anyone with them and they had staggered into being a couple together which for two people with as deep a trust issues as they had was saying something. There were no monsters, or witches or anything flying around the town, buildings were being repaired and schools were back open and the Merry Men had consented to moving their camp nearer the town on the fact that Robin was now in a relationship with Regina and the rest of them desired it once they found out what a shower was.

Everything seemed settled down. Everyone seemed happy. Everyone was hoping that this was it. That there was nothing coming out of the wells, or out of the woods or out of the water. There was no Pan, no magic, no curse, nothing. Even Gold had settled down into something that could have been described as near normality and as close to happiness as the man was going to get.

They had been congratulated over their engagement, Liam and Emma had been civil exactly six times though his brother clearly kept pushing for more. Killian had decided to move in with them (they were going to have to find him room because Liam wanted his couch back) and both of their business were ticking over smoothly with very little property damage which always seemed to happen around her no matter what curse it was or who had cast it.

It should have been perfect.

It wasn't.

Elsa knew this because she knew that things had changed within her. Her magic, her very being her very essence in fact was changing and twisting and turning and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She had a ring on her finger and a good man in her bed (and his brother on her couch but that was by the by) and she still couldn't stop waking screaming with ice surrounding her thinking she was back in that cage and the never ending burning feeling that came when her magic was being stripped away to nothing.

She would wake up screaming and Liam next to her would wake up as well. Sometimes Killian would come in to check they were alright though he did that less and less frequently now. He knew that Liam knew how to handle it as if Elsa was something to be handled. It was Liam now who would wrap her back up under the blankets when she was shivering so hard that she thought she would vomit and Liam who brushed away the snow and tugged the icicles down from the ceiling, and it was Liam who would hold her until she fell asleep again muttering that it didn't matter, that nothing mattered anymore but the two of them and the happy ending that was being carved out for them.

It was odd though. Throughout the entire relationship it had been Liam who had been the negative one. She had never judged him for it. She had accepted it as easy as she had accepted the fact that he liked pepper on his eggs in the morning, as the nature of their relationship. He'd never had an easy childhood, had been betrayed by many a man he had trusted and had gone through hell on that island both times they were there. It had not mattered that she had been the one to hold firm to the hope and the optimism.

Now it was the other way around.

Liam was the one who was smiling more, who was telling her it was all going to be ok, who was hugging her and holding her and cradling her and making her feel like it was safe to be herself. Her magic was utterly out of control, it had bounced back into her body after Zelena with the speed of a train and yet it was Liam who was telling her as he had always done with a lightness around his eyes (that was new) that it was all going to be ok and that she had the support of her family and friends around her.

But she didn't.

Elsa had friends, she had friends who might even be family but she didn't have the family around her that she knew. Her parents were dead, they were no Aunts and Uncles and her sister had locked her in an urn. Even though her thoughts had strayed more and more to her little sister since she had been in captivity she had still not even tried to find a way to reach out. Her sister had thought her a dangerous monster. Right now Elsa was more afraid than she would admit that Anna would prove right. She had been in a cage twice, she was sure as hell not going in a third alive.

She had said this to the woman at the shop on the first day she had met her. Ingrid had been a woman who had surprised Elsa. She had a soft spoken manner and a smile that warmed her whole face when she meant it. She was more than happy to show Elsa the books and when Elsa had accidently frozen the damn thing to the table she showed no signs of fear asking if perhaps she would like some ice cream and a glass of wine sometimes. Elsa had, had to blink back tears rapidly at this point and the woman had nodded, closed the shop and then had gone to pour herself a glass of the ice cold white wine while Elsa was just glad to be out of the way of prying eyes.

"It will all work out in the end" she'd said softly patting Elsa on the arm. "And you do have a family Elsa, and they love you even if your parents couldn't see past the wonder that is your magic"

(In the days to come, Elsa would analyse that sentence for any hidden meaning but looking back she found that it was comforting. Looking forwards it was still comforting. That had been the problem)

"So go on, tell me all about this man your engaged too" Ingrid had said with another slow and soft smile and Elsa had grinned and talked about Liam until the bottle was finished which helped significantly.

But that didn't change the fact that she was struggling.

She'd thought, naively that she had it under control until Zelena had been mentioned in Granny's. She'd had to put her cup down on the bench because she was shaking so hard that it would spill and she ducked her head wishing she had left her hair loose so that it would hide her face.

She had managed to pull herself together and walk of Granny's but she got to the end of Main Street before she was suddenly sure she was being watched by someone and something made her stop. She looked around her hair in a loose bun, pushing aside the curling strands and she forced herself to carry on walking.

It was then that she heard it.

First it was the screaming and then she was buffered to the side as people started running and she winced as her elbow banged into the wall.

It was the sound of something crunching through the town and Elsa knew if she was hearing it this far away, if she was hearing the screaming already then it was not a normal creature walking through Storybrooke.

And then she saw it.

For a second she stared at it with wide eyes. It was a monster, a giant snow monster that was made of what looked like hulking snowballs piled on top of each other, crude and terrifying to the eye. Hell it looked terrifying to her. She leaned back against the wall and watched with wide eyes as it took a staggering step forwards crashing through a wall and while Elsa watched she tried to wrack her brains for anything she had done that would require this. Because of course this was her? This had to be her? She was sure that after all this time, after the meticulous research done by her parents, by her court council, by herself—she was sure that by now she would have heard about someone with powers such as herself. For the love of—even the Rock Trolls didn't have an idea's and they held the memories of over a thousand years in their…well…rocks.

So this must be her—but how? She knew her magic was unstable. She had known she was struggling between Zelena and all that came after her and she wanted to fix it but…but surely she had not been creating snow monsters without realising it. Even in her moments of dire and utter panic she had not been doing that?

Or had she?

Had she gone back to day one without even knowing it? To the point where she could not remember weather or not she had created something with so much as a flicker of a thought? She had passed that surely. And yet here was Leroy screaming down the High Street about a monster and Elsa had been right there—right where she had once been, looking up at her mother who was looking down at her with disgust and horror written all over her face and Elsa had been left disgusted and filled with hatred—at herself and at her mother—the magic she had and the love that seemed to almost dry up the second she could see the snow appearing out of thin air.

She gazed up at the monster walking through the town and she wanted to raise her arms and magic him away but she found she couldn't. If she had created such a thing without so much as thinking it then she knew enough to know with bitter, bitter experience that she was dangerous. That she was going to continue to be dangerous until she managed to get it under control and she couldn't do anything about it. That she was a danger to the people she loved.

And with that thought in mind she ran.

Where she was running to she didn't know, but then again, she hadn't really known the last time had she?.

Liam's day had gone well for exactly three hours before it went to shit. With both Will and Cyrus desperate for more money (so they could start families) he found that he wasn't needed to work so many long shifts and so he decided to go for a run which now he was thinking of it was a very bad idea. Because…well he had not been for a run in a while. And it was showing.

He stopped near the Merry Men's camp which was still on the outskirts of the town when he heard it.

There was the sound of a car screeching down the highway and then before Robin could even get out of his tent (his hair messed up like he had been running his hand through them) Emma and Killian had come leaping out of one car and David out of another as Regina looking utterly composed appeared out of thin…smoke.

"Were you running?" Killian asked with a raised eyebrow. Liam silently plotted his brothers demise. Some chilli sauce in his stew would do—Lord knew Killian was not understanding any of the modern worlds condiments even if he found the squeezy tube amusing.

"I run Killian" Liam replied back waspishly. He did not appreciate the look of utter amusement on his brother's face. Honestly he had enlisted first, and even King George's navy had, had physical requirements.

"Liam where's Elsa?"

"Elsa?" he turned to Emma confused though he had a feeling that he wasn't going to remain so for long.

"There is snow monster coming through the streets of Storybrooke as we speak. And we all know that since Zelena she's been struggling with her magic" it was David that spoke. Emma met his eyes steadily but it seemed she couldn't form the words and Liam was aware suddenly that this was the first time they had been in the same breathing space as the other since he had called her out over her treatment of Killian. Looking at his brother out of the corner of his eye—he knew it to. Very carefully he didn't look his brother in the face. There was only one person who had told the Charming's Elsa was struggling and it had been neither him, nor his fiancé.

"You do not get to blame Elsa for your problems" he said quietly looking straight at her. "You have uncontrollable magic just as she does sweetheart. Look at yourself in the mirror before you start throwing shade"

Their confrontation was interrupted by the arrival of the Snow—well whatever it was. Regina with an huff disappeared and then appeared again snow on her shoulders and the thing was gone. It seemed to Liam an entirely all together overreaction considering all that he had gone through but he was not in the mood. He wanted to find Elsa and if he was being honest he wanted as far away from these people as he could get. All of the stress they had been under the last few weeks had been so intense…he was really not sure if he could go through another disaster again.

He was not sure his temper would survive.

And he wanted to get away from his brother who only this morning had been hinting that it was time to put the past behind them and who had been clearly giving Emma Swan a replay on what was going on in the home that he had thought they shared together.

Yeah. His temper was not going to survive this.

She had stared up at the wall of ice that had appeared on the edge of the line. Elsa had curled up in it as if it was her friend and she watched with an intense hunger. Soon everyone would turn against her, even that charming man (she would admit he was charming in his own rough and ragged way) that claimed he loved her. People could never love what they didn't understand—they only pretended too—who could know better than her? She who'd felt the bitter sting of betrayal more than once from someone who claimed to love her.

Gods Anna had looked so much like her mother it had taken a huge effort not to wrap both her hands around her neck and freeze her there and then. She had been quick to distrust, quick to suspect, quick to try and stop her, Helga through and through, but Elsa had fallen on her as if she was as friend. Elsa had needed her, Elsa once upon a time, could have—should have—been her daughter, her pupil.

And now she had to teach her the hardest lesson of all.

And that was just Elsa. Emma was going to be a completely different story. Emma did not give up without a fight, Emma had never had to wonder if her parents love came with conditions because since she had found them it had never done so. She had watched, always in the background as Snow White took a moniker that once upon a time should have been hers. It had been in her grip, in her grasp and overnight she had lost it.

But she was patient. She'd had a hard apprenticeship in patience.

Thank her sister for that.

So as she watched her niece break her heart over something that was entirely not her fault and Emma Swan lose confidence in herself and her leadership it was with a smile. Sometimes you had to hurt the people you loved to get them to understand—hadn't she been told that over and over again?

And now they would understand. Emma and Elsa, her daughters, her sisters, her magical companions. Soon they would understand, soon they would be hers.

Everything was falling into place.

From the shadows Ingrid smiled to herself.

Now she just had to find something to distract the Dark One and all would be hers.

And there you go, I hope you like this chapter and the next one will be published just as soon as I have written it.

Next Chapter-Elsa hides in the ice wall as she and Emma have a conversation about magic, love, loss and legacy. Liam and Killian on the outside come to blows trying to find a way to save them and the Snow Queen begins to make her move.