Chapter 5: No Love for One
Her heart pounds in her ears when Crystal realizes what the chill in the air meant. She could start seeing her breath and the edges of the stream were beginning to freeze over.
"What do you want?" she asks angrily. Her hands are glowing in anticipation of a fight but clench her fists to keep them under control, not wanting to fight unless she had to.
"I was merely in the neighbourhood and thought I'd stop by to provide warm comfort."
"No part of you is either warm or comforting," Crystal snaps. "You're about as warm as a campfire doused in gasoline and as comforting as a bathtub filled with thumbtacks."
"Oh… hot-headed, just like your father."
"Don't compare me to him…" she hisses angrily. She refuses to turn around and face the ice witch. The woman was like Medusa but instead of turning to stone when looking at her, you'd be turned into a block of ice.
"You're right… you aren't like him. Not entirely anyway, there is love within you, something that is rare in your father's being. That's why you've peaked my interest."
"Why would you care about me?" she asks, finally turning around to meet the woman's gaze.
Ingrid's dressed in her sparkling white gown, her blonde hair pulled up into a bun, glistening icicle earrings dangle from her ears and a single ice crystal hangs from her necklace, which seems to glow in the morning light. She would look very pretty to anyone, except for the fact that she was as cold-hearted as her powers. She has her hands down in front of her, giving no indication of an attack, and gives the frustrated teen a gentle smile. But Crystal knows better than to trust anyone with evil intentions. "I thought Elsa and Emma were the ones you're after."
"Well, yes, until I saw what you could do."
"Since when have you seen what I can do?" the teen presses, slightly creeped out by this.
"I have my ways," Ingrid chortles to herself.
"Is it that mirror you have?" she questions.
"Maybe."
"The mirror that will create the curse that you plan to unleash on Storybrooke?"
"You know about that don't you?"
"Everyone does, besides I used to read a lot of fairy tales when I was younger, and The Snow Queen was among them."
"I never liked the tales in this land, they are so inaccurate."
"Most of them are, but I find yours at least partially accurate. Your heart is indeed a very cold lump of ice."
"On the contrary dear Crystal, my heart is full of love. Love for my sisters that I do not want to lose. Love for the world of magic and the prophecy that will come true."
"That's absolute crap. If you really had love in your heart, you'd know better than to curse the town into destroying one another. That's not loving."
"And what you and your father have is?"
"It's complicated," the girl insists, her hands still clenched into fists. Her special vision shows her the Snow Queen's very pale energy, very blank, almost as white as snow, with a heart that beats more slowly and seemed to glow blue at times. She shudders in the cooling atmosphere and shoves her hands in her jean jacket pockets. Snowflakes begin to fall very slowly around the two of them and the stream is freezing over more rapidly. Most of the time, Crystal likes snowfall, it's very peaceful but she'd prefer that the precipitation came from the sky, not an ice witch.
"So am I."
"Have you ever heard of psychiatry? Maybe that could help you more, I do know someone, he has a good conscience."
"I do not need help, I see quite clearly about what I have to do."
"And what you must do is make everyone kill each other? That's the kind of logic that will get you locked up."
"Like you ought to be?"
"Shut up! Are you just here to taunt me or did dropping my body temperature have a purpose?"
"A good purpose, in fact, I'm here to offer you something."
"What could you possibly give me besides frostbite?"
"I'm here to offer you a chance to be apart of our family."
She blinks in disbelief. "What?"
"I want you to join us, Crystal. Elsa, Emma, you, and I, living happily in this tiny town, no distractions, no evil fathers, no doubting stepmothers. You are just like the rest of us. You know that no one will truly understand you like we do. You can finally leave your father's dark shadow and be your own person. You can be free of being judged and you can use those powers of yours for good."
"I already use them for good," Crystal sighs. She can see her breath cloud is getting thicker and thicker, but her anger continues to grow.
"No as long as your father still exists, you will never be free of his burden. His influence will always be over you and even though the townspeople respect you now, remember what it was like when they first found out about your true past and those powers. They shunned you and insulted you, treated you like an outcast."
Crystal swallows very hard. The painful memory of Snow yelling at her, trying to keep baby Neal away, saying that she was dangerous. The former princess called her a villain and everyone else was scared to be near her, because of what she was and that she couldn't control her powers. She fights back a few tears and shivers more and more in the cold. Her knees buckled slightly from the emotion. It was true that she hated that she'd always be associated with the darkness and her father, and it would be nice not to have to maintain control all the time, but…
"They don't trust you, even your own stepmother wouldn't believe you when you told her about your father acquiring Captain Hook's heart. That must've hurt quite a lot. You can never truly belong here Crystal, you're not like anyone else, but if you agree to join me, we can live a happy life, we'll be among people who understand us. I can even help you find Mason again."
Her head is spinning in a flurry of emotion. The ground beneath her shakes slightly at the mention of her ex-boyfriend. She shakes her head, trying to clear her mind, but she's so overwhelmed to the point of wanting to collapse or maybe it was because this specific patch of forest was becoming Arctic temperatures.
"I know you still miss him, I can see the pain on your face. If you decide to be a part of our family, we can find him again. and I'll let him stay with you. You've been without love for too long now Crisi, but with me, you can have the family you've always wanted."
Something inside of Rumpelstiltskin's daughter shifts. Her heart pounds angrily at her chest, realizing what she'd be agreeing to. She remembers what Regina had said to her after the Snow-White confrontation, the connection she made with the former Evil Queen and the love she felt in those moments. How the former Evil Queen told her about the second chance she was being given to fix her broken self and become the person she wanted to be. This would not happen if she decided to join Ingrid. She'd be losing that love she'd been working so hard to maintain and she already had the family she'd wanted. Granted it wasn't perfect, but it was still her family. For better or for worse, they care about her and she cares about them. Despite the hope given of finding her boyfriend, she knows that this is a lie, it's false hope to lure her in.
"I already have the family I've always wanted. And your spell would just take away from that. You can take your offer and your curse and shove it where the sun doesn't shine you witch because, like Emma and Elsa, I'm not going to throw away what I have for false promises. The only one without love is you"
Ingrid swallows a lump in her throat. She thought for sure that the daughter of the Dark One would want to be rid of her tormentors and her father. Clearly, she underestimated her love for the fools around her. She sighs, knowing that she's going to have to work a lot harder to convince Emma of the same thing. The Dark One's child was expendable at best, and if she did survive the massacre that was coming, she could make a good slave to the three "sisters".
"That's such a shame, I thought we could get along quite well, but if that is what you feel…"
The ice queen suddenly lets out a blast of icy magic, Crystal is blasted backward, barely having time to react. The gust of cold wind pins her to the tree behind them. She looks down and sees that there is a coating of ice slowly growing around her chest, pinning her, one of her arms is immovable now. Knowing her strength won't last much longer in this cold, she lets her hands glow a dark purple, the kind she only uses when she absolutely has to. Crystal uses her still free hand to blast the Snow Cone Queen with a good amount of magic. It hits Ingrid square in the chest and she goes flying backward, her dress sprawling out, making her look like a sparkly ghost floating through the air.
The blonde woman falls onto the soft snow of her own making, allowing her victim to use her powers to free herself from the tree. The shards of ice fall to the ground and Crystal ends up on her knee. She creates a fireball in her hand to warm herself up. She thinks about toasting the queen for good but knows that would be wrong, it would be what her father would've done. She feels the warmth surround her body, giving her the energy she needs to fight back again.
"You're really going to have to fight for your delusional family because all of us have the love we need."
Ingrid slowly fumbles around, trying to get up from her heavy dress and not slipping on the ice.
"That's exactly what I intend to do, tell Emma that she'll want to be apart of my family soon when no one else is left."
She then throws her hands out, ice magic flowing from her fingertips. Crystal watches as the snow begins to swirl faster and faster until there is a large mass in the middle of their battlefield. Her heart catches in her throat as the mass slowly turns its head to glare at its target. The eyes are a dark blue, very hollow, and hungry looking. The spikes on its back raise upwards, made of very sharp icicles and the creature whips its tail around lethally with equally shards of ice. The wings on its back spread out to stretch and to take flight.
It's a snow dragon.
"Oh good lord. Anyone have some anti-freeze?" Crystal gasps.
A/N: Disappointed they never used an ice dragon in the show. That would've been awesome. Please read and review