Chapter 17: One is Not Enough
Emma's hand light up with white magic, ready to fight this beast with all her might. She knows her son, parents, and Elsa are depending on her. The wolf's eyes glow a deep yellow now, indicating that it had taken full form. Like the many beasts they've already faced, Emma knows that only heat is going to kill it.
The wolf crouches down, ready to spring, but Emma is ready. When its legs leave the ground, she blasts it with white magic. The snow animal goes flying and lands roughly against a large tree. It makes a whimpering noise as it makes contact. Most of the time, the Saviour would feel bad about wounding an animal, but it was only made of snow, meaning it wasn't alive. She hits it again in an attempt to keep it pinned down.
However, the creature seems to absorb her second attack. It looks like it lost one of its leg and a big chunk of its midsection from the attack. It still manages to stand and shake itself off. Emma watches as it reforms itself again with little hesitation. Like the dragon, Emma needs to bring the heat in order to melt this snowman.
Trying to remember what Regina taught her about pyrokinesis, she lets flames spew from the end of her fingertips. They come out as malformed balls of fire considering how inexperienced she was, the first three merely land on the ground and extinguish without any effect. Knowing she had to get this thing, the next fireballs have more shape and go further. They don't hit the wolf, but they cause it to retreat away from the energy.
It snarls at her as Emma keeps launching more and more fireballs at it, her anger towards Ingrid fueling the flames.
…
"Go, Mom!" Henry calls, gripping the new bars of the cage, watching the entire scene from the mirror. Elsa looks hopeful but wants to find a way to help.
Killian manages to crack a smile as his Swan battles fiercely against the ice witch's beast.
However, Ingrid has a neutral expression on her face. She knows fire can kill any of her creatures, but they weren't that easy to kill. She knows she has to send some reinforcements. She turns and exits her cave for a few moments.
"Don't you bloody touch her!" Killian roars, doing his best to fight the cold inching up his body, turning him to ice. The numbing and sharp feeling of freezing had reached his waist, but fortunately, his arms were still able to move. He tries in vain again to get free.
"We need to do something," the pirate says. "We need to escape."
"We can't," Elsa says. "Without my powers, I'm useless against her."
"We need to free Snow and Charming before they freeze!" Killian says. "And if I had my hook, I might be able to break out of this and get that ribbon off you..."
"But only an act of true love…" Elsa begins to say. She looks at the pirate's eyes. She can tell that he's trying to be brave, his eyes matching the colour of her dress. They showed courage and gallantry, but she could see the fear in them as well. She remembers when her face used to always look like. How afraid she was of hurting the people that she cared about, the mask she wore to protect herself from others. She feared losing her sister and now she feared losing her new friends as well. She sees Henry shivering, flashing back to Emma when they were trapped in the ice wall together. She knows he won't last long in the frigid atmosphere. She can see Killian, still holding onto hope and remaining strong in the face of adversity. She knew she had to do something…
She suddenly hears noises behind her. She sees Henry using his boot to scrape against the wall.
"What are you doing?" the snow queen asks.
"You may not be able to use your ice powers, but we can still use ice," he says.
He finally manages to get a good chunk of ice off the white wall. He picks it up and goes to the front of the created cage. He then starts taking aim at the shelf where Killian's hook and the crystal holding his grandparents are. He chucks the piece of ice at the shelf. To his disappointment, it misses and hits the opposite wall. He had no idea that he such a strong arm.
"Brilliant lad!" Killian says. "You're trying to break the crystal."
"Or even knock your hook down," Henry adds. He stomps at the cave wall again, trying to get a heavier ice chunk, but so far, he's only gotten small shards.
"Let me help," Elsa says. She removes one of her ice high heels and drives it into the wall. She drags it down, trying to carve out a good chunk.
If his heart was in his chest, it would be beating in excitement as his hopes were building. If Henry managed to break the crystal, it would free Snow and Charming, allowing them to give him his hook back, he could free Elsa and they could all escape… He tries to ignore the blatant flaw that he was not likely going anywhere, but the heroes would not leave him behind.
He looks back towards the mirror in search of Emma.
"Bloody hell!" he gasps.
…
"Come on Sparky," Emma taunts as she continues keeping the creature a bay. The wolf is struggling to reform without Emma's constant attacks of fire. It tries to take refuge behind a tree.
Emma knows it's time to finish the job and rescue her son, so she focuses and lets a large stream of fire escape from her hands. The heat makes her cheeks extremely rosy, but Emma can feel the power she needs to get this to melt.
With the tree partially on fire now, the wolf has nowhere to go, water is pooling under its crystalline paws. It lets out a lonely howl before succumbing the heat.
The Saviour smiles and lets out a shout of victory. She extinguishes her hands but decides to let the tree burn because, with the water around it, it was unlikely that it would spread quickly. It might be a good place to come back to warm Henry up once he was rescued.
She advances forward, around the burning tree, going in the direction that the animal had come from. She's even more determined now to end Ingrid once and for all.
Just then, several howls erupt from a thicket of trees. Emma's on guard again, her hands go up. To her horror, many more wolves approach her. These ones are much bigger and would likely be harder to kill.
"IS THIS HOW YOU WANT TO DO IT DAIRY QUEEN?!" Emma shouts. "YOU WON'T FACE ME ALONE?!"
She blasts one of the first wolves with magic, but another wolf springs at her. It's thick, icy paws pound at her chest, sending her to the ground. She's pinned down by this large creature. She struggles to get her hands up, but the weight of the wolf is weighing her down. It's so heavy that it was likely going to crack a few ribs if it stayed on top of her.
She finally manages to get underneath the wolf and blast it upwards. The creature goes upwards, allowing Emma to get to her feet. Her shoulders and chest hurt, all were likely badly bruised. She lets out another blast, to keep the things at bay.
However, the wolves are surrounding their prey. Emma isn't sure if they're going to kill her, after all, Ingrid wanted her as her "sister." One wolf grabs the back of Emma's pant leg, it's icicle-like teeth tearing at the fabric with such force it pulls the Saviour down again. Emma tries to hit the thing with a fireball, but another wolf takes the chance to put its front paws on her back, pinning her down. She can feel is icy cold breath down her neck. She becomes afraid that it will bite her head. She tries to launch magic, but she's too overwhelmed.
Fearing the worst, Emma is prepared to go out fighting if she had to.
Suddenly, a loud explosion of sound echoes through the forest. The wolf on her back is blasted off her and the other wolf holding her leg is hit with a bright flash of light.
Emma's ears are ringing from the explosion and she tries to comprehend what was happening. Her head is spinning until she feels someone grab her arms and help her up. Despite the pain surging through her, it brings Emma to her feet. She immediately recognizes the face.
"Need a hand?" Crystal asks, with much confidence in her voice.
Emma just nods and tries to collect herself.
"I figured you'd run headlong into danger, so I bought a little backup," Rumpel's daughter says.
"Is Regina here?"
"She's still recovering from nearly turning into a popsicle herself," Crystal explains.
Confused, Emma opens her mouth to ask a question, but Crystal then shoves her shoulder bag into the Saviour's arms.
"Hold this for me for a second."
The younger of the sorceresses then conjures up a large ring of fire around them. Despite the heat, the yellow eyes of the pack of wolves stay away.
Crystal then goes digging through the back until she found what she needed.
Emma can see what looks like a round cylinder, almost like a can, in Crystal's hands. The daughter of the Dark One opens the can and pulls out a thick lump of reddish clay. She then moulds it into a round sphere, with a tip on the end. She then grabs a ball of string, sticks it in the clay and begins wrapping around it frantically. Once it's covered in the string, she leaves a small piece loose, having it hand hang down from the strange device. She then snaps her fingers and lit the end with a small flame. Crystal then forces the flames away from them and forms a new ring around the wolves, effectively trapping them. They snarl at their elemental enemy and bark loudly. Some even try to jump over, but the heat keeps them in place.
"You might want to cover your ears," Crystal says.
She then chucks the ball of clay into the centre of the pack.
Almost instantly there's a blinding flash of light and what appears to be a mountain of flames explodes upward. Emma flinches but then realizes that Crystal has erected a shield around them for protection as the massive amount of fire surrounds them and practically consumes everything in its path. The roar of the orange, red and yellow flames seems to ring in Emma's ears. She squints, trying to see what it beyond the fiery inferno.
Within a few minutes, Emma can see the forest again, or rather what was left of it. The ground around their little shield of protection was sheened and black, tufts of smoke rising from the ground and floating into the air. Many of the trees that surrounded them are either gone or burnt beyond recognition. When Crystal brings the shield down, the air is thick with smoke and what once was a pack of fearsome ice wolves, is nothing but a smoking black crater with pools of water inside and flecks of red clay around it.
"Yes!" Crystal says to herself, knowing what she had done was very risky, but after doing the calculations in her head, her plan had worked perfectly.
Emma coughs a few times before speaking.
"What the hell was that?"
"Polymerized Volcano clay," Crystal explains. "It came from an island far from the Enchanted Forest, my dad had a chunk of it in his shop. It's basically like a mini bomb, conducting the heat and launching it into the sky like its namesake. Problem is, it's sometimes hard to control, that's why I wrapped it in the string, once the string was wet from the melting wolves, it made the clay wet, kind of containing the explosion made it less intense for us and the forest. Unfortunately, a few trees had to pay the price."
Emma clings to her shoulder, grimacing in pain from being pounced on. Sensing her discomfort, Crystal waves her hands over the Saviour and heals her bruised body.
"I wish you had waited until you had some backup," Crystal says.
"I know, but I had to confront the witch."
"One is not enough to defeat her Emma, you know that."
Tired of being lectured by a teenager no less, Emma sighs. She knows she reacted impulsively, but that's what a mother does to protect her child. "I know, but can we please go save my son and Elsa?"
"Yes. I also brought this." She holds up a locator potion and Henry's scarf. Emma applies the potion quickly and then lets the scarf lead the way.
…
However, while Emma had won the battle, the prize was far from being claimed.
Ingrid huffs angrily, knowing she's going to have to defend her domain from Rumpelstiltskin's daughter and Emma. Frustrated she comes back into the cave, unbeknownst to her that Hook told Henry to stop throwing ice chunks when he heard her footsteps.
All three that were captive in the Ice Queen's cage had watched the battle unfold and had hope that they would be rescued, and Ingrid could not let that happen.
"What are you looking at?" she snaps at the prisoners.
"Forgot about that family member, didn't you?" Killian smirks.
Something inside Ingrid snaps, she's fed up with the pirate and wants some peace and quiet.
"Let's make that smile permanent, then shall we?" she sneers.
"KILLIAN!" Elsa screams in horror.
Henry tries to kick at the bars, trying to help the pirate, but to no avail.
Ingrid hits the pirate with her ice powers, speeding up the process until it was done. The Snow Queen knew that only true love could save him now and as far she knew, he didn't have any true love. The pirate could also be used as leverage if he was silent.
Over the wind, Killian grimaced in pain as his entire body felt like it had a thousand needles piercing his skin. The ice moved up his body, freezing his arms and it was spreading for his neck. Over the icy racket, he manages to shout.
"Elsa…" Killian pants, knowing he has seconds left. "Tell Emma I…"
He never gets to finish as his skin now matches his blue eyes and a small cloud of white mist escapes his lips for the last time. Captain Hook was now solid ice, allowing his last thought to be of Emma Swan.
A/N: A dramatic scene. Please follow and review.