The children's screams continued as they passed through the tunnel of lights in the portal until they came out of another portal and landed with a groan of pain on a hard, but soft surface as well.

Steven was the first to get up and put a hand to his head. "Ouch. That was harder than I thought." complained Steven before looking over and finding Connie struggling to get up. "Connie!" he shouted as he ran quickly to her side to help her. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. It's been a tough fall, but I'm okay." Connie said.

"What is this place?" when Steven asked that, they both looked around to analyze the place.

They were in a snow-covered forest and some mountains in the distance. Among the trees, they could see a slight line of smoke, a sign that someone was living over there.

"I'd say we're in some country in the North." Connie said.

"How do you know?" Steven asked.

"The trees around here are pines and those only grow in places far north, plus there's snow everywhere." said Connie relating her knowledge.

"So, has that portal led us somewhere up north?" asked Steven.

"Maybe, but I don't know where on Earth we are." said Connie.

"Well. There's smoke coming out of there. Maybe there's someone alive who can help us." Steven said, pointing to the line of smoke.

"Good idea." Connie said.

The two young people walked up to the smoke line and discovered it came from a cabin that had a sign that said 'Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna'. They thought the spa part was a little weird, but they shrugged it off and went into the cabin, where they saw a rather large man behind the counter.

"Welcome! Today, big summer discount! Tailored swimsuits, Swedes and a sunscreen of my own invention! Are you interested in anything?" asked the man who was probably Oaken.

"Uh... No, thank you. We're fine." Steven said.

"Do you know where the nearest populated area is?" Connie asked.

"South of the mountain is the kingdom of Arendelle." said Oaken.

"Thank you very much, sir." Steven said with a smile.

"Yeah. See you." Connie said before they left the cabin.

"What a lovely couple." said Oaken.

Following Oaken's advice, the younger members of the Crystal Gems headed down the mountain to Arendelle. Needless to say, they were in awe of the place.

For the next few hours, they were exploring the place, seeing, in awe, all sorts of things that were out there.

"Unbelievable. This place is amazing." said Steven with stars in his eyes. Suddenly, he noticed that Connie was both thoughtful and worried. "What's up, Connie?"

"Steven, I don't think we're in our world anymore." Connie said something worried and nervous.

Steven was in a state of shock for a few seconds. "WHAT?!" Before he could continue his scream of surprise, Connie covered it with her hand and took a finger to her teeth.

"Shh. Don't raise your voice. Let's talk about this somewhere else." whispered Connie before grabbing Steven by the hand and pulling him away from people.

The two young men ended up on the dock after checking that there weren't too many people around.

"Another world? Why do you think that?" Steven asked.

"Steven, I've read hundreds of books about countries in the world and even though I don't know most of them, I can tell you there isn't a place called Arendelle." said Connie.

"Maybe it's not in all the books." said Steven trying to find an explanation.

"I thought about that too, but then I looked at the architecture and culture here. I read this style in a history book and it only existed for a long time." Connie explained.

"Wouldn't it be that we've traveled back in time or something?" Steven asked.

"Maybe. I guess we'll have to do some research to be sure." said Connie.

Steven pondered what his best friend had said, when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. "Hey, what's that over there?" Steven asked, pointing in one direction.

Connie followed his gaze and saw that, far away from the port, there was a boat with black sails, but what really caught her attention was a boat heading there with 4 people on board. From among the people on board, she noticed a shade of blue.

"I don't know. It's too far away." Connie said, squinting.

"Use this." said Steven showing Connie a spyglass.

"Where did you get that?" asked Connie with an eyebrow raised.

"I took it before we left for the mission. You never know when you're going to need it." Steven said.

Connie didn't question that and took the spyglass to see through it. She directed the main tip of the spyglass to the boat and what she saw made her have a worried and surprised expression on her face.

"What? What is it?" asked Steven after seeing his friend's expression.

"Steven, I think there's a couple of people kidnapped on that boat." said Connie.

TIME BEFORE

While Steven and Connie were exploring Arendelle, queen Elsa was walking around the area with her sister, princess Anna.

"I'm glad you agreed to come for a walk, Elsa." said Anna.

"Well. Now that the gates are open, there are many things I want to see from outside the palace. But it will only be a short while, I have royal duties to attend to." Elsa said.

"I know, I know. You're the queen of Arendelle, you have responsibilities. You let me out of that roll before we left." said Anna with a smile.

"And I'll always remind you of it." Elsa replied jokingly.

The two sisters continued to walk to the port, contemplating the views in the process.

Anna took a deep breath of the surrounding air. "Ah, nothing like a sunny day to relax." Anna said.

"Without a doubt." said Elsa, enjoying that beautiful morning.

Suddenly, they both heard groans of effort, turned their heads in the direction of the voice and saw a skinny man having trouble driving his boat. The two sisters went there to investigate.

"Excuse me, sir, is something wrong?" Elsa asked.

"It's nothing, but I'm having a little trouble docking the boat." said the man.

"We can help you." said Anna.

"No. What kind of a gentleman would I be if I let two beautiful young girls help me?" said the man.

"We insist." said Elsa before she and Anna grabbed the rope and pulled it, docking the boat and allowing the man to step into the harbor.

"Thank you very much, ladies. You've been a great help." said the man leaning slightly.

"You're welcome. Is there anything else you need us to do?" Anna asked.

"Well, yes." said the man with a sinister smile. Suddenly, Anna was grabbed by a muscular man holding her hands behind her back and a knife near her neck. "Be still."

"Anna!" cried Elsa after seeing her sister in danger.

"If I were you, I wouldn't try anything. Unless you don't care about your sister's life." said the skinny man.

Elsa grunted slightly as she saw that they had fallen into a trap. Seeing the knife so close to her sister's neck, she knew that if she tried to use her powers, she would risk injury or worse.

"What do you want?" Elsa asked with a scowl.

"We just want you to come with us. But first, I'll have to tie those hands of yours, just in case." said the skinny man pointing at the boat.

Elsa had no choice but to give in to their demands if she could protect her sister. After they had tied her hands behind her back, both she and the skinny man got into the boat, Anna and her captor followed soon after, taking care not to move the knife away from the princess's neck so as not to disturb the situation.

The skinny man was rowing the boat until it reached a ship with black sails that was quite far from the port of Arendelle. After releasing a signal whistle, a couple of ropes with hooks came down hanging from the boat. The skinny man hooked the hooks at the ends of the boat and started to climb up to the deck level, where they could get out of the boat and onto the ship with ease.

As soon as they stepped on the deck, the royal sisters were even more worried when they saw a horde of men who stopped their activities to cast a look of amusement at them.

Then, they started hearing footsteps. Some men stepped aside, and in front of them stood a man with a wooden leg, a scruffy beard, and a tricorn hat.

"Greetings, queen Elsa de Arendelle. You honor me with your presence." said the bearded man bowing in false respect.

"Who are you?" asked Elsa trying to show courage.

"Of course. Where are my manners?" asked the bearded man to himself. "I am captain NeckKiller and I welcome my pirate crew." said the pirate captain along with a cheer from the crew.

Elsa and Anna were surprised to learn that they had been captured by a gang of pirates.

"If what you want is Arendelle's gold, we'll give it to you, but don't hurt anyone." said Elsa, thinking of Arendelle's people.

"Oh, I'm offended, your majesty. Not all pirates are obsessed with gold and wealth. Well, we are, but that's not exactly why we're here." said NeckKiller.

"What do you want then?" asked Elsa.

"You of course." said NeckKiller to the queen's surprise and fear. The captain began to walk in front of everyone as he began to narrate. "Everyone in the vicinity has heard of the queen who possesses ice powers capable of freezing entire kingdoms. So, I asked myself: Why should such a power be wasted on a ridiculous kingdom when we can make the most of it?" said NeckKiller.

"If you wanted me. Why is Anna here? She has nothing to do with it." Elsa said.

"Do you think we're stupid?" asked NeckKiller. "I had an intuition that you could freeze this boat the moment you set foot on it. Your little sister is our insurance policy. As long as you don't do anything to us, we won't do anything to her." said NeckKiller, running his fingers across Anna's face, to which she responded by moving her face away from him.

Elsa felt bad. Once again, her powers had only brought misfortune, first to the kingdom after accidentally sending them a blizzard and now some pirates were using her sister as a hostage because they wanted to use her powers for their own benefit. However, she couldn't let those pirates get away with it. She had to show courage, not fear and despair. Putting her fears and insecurities aside, she focused on the pirate captain.

"I don't care what you do to me or what you say. I won't use my powers for your benefit!" said Elsa, putting aside her fear and scowling at the pirate captain.

"Do you mean it?" asked NeckKiller unsurprisingly.

"You heard my sister. She's not going to help you at all!" said Anna.

"Very well. In that case..." began NeckKiller before pointing his head at the crew, causing a couple of men to go and hold the queen in place. Elsa wanted to use her powers to free herself, but with her sister a prisoner, she couldn't risk it. "I'll have to get rid of the dead weight. With emphasis on 'dead'." said NeckKiller before drawing his sword and approaching Anna.

"Wha... What are you doing?" Elsa asked, beginning to fear what the pirate captain had planned.

"Do you know why I call myself NeckKiller?" asked the captain before he raised his sword, bringing it close to the princess's neck. "Normally, most people go for the heart or the head, but I prefer to go for the neck, so that the head is perfectly preserved." said NeckKiller with a dark and wicked smile.

NeckKiller began to raise his sword. Elsa and Anna's eyes opened with horror at what he was about to do. "Wait! No! I'll do anything, but don't do it!" Elsa begged. In fact, she was so focused on it, she hadn't thought about using her powers.

"I'm sorry, your Majesty. Consider it a punishment for refusing." said NeckKiller before putting down the sword.

Elsa and Anna closed their eyes waiting for the terrible end. Suddenly there was the sound of metal crashing into each other. Both opened their eyes and were amazed to see that a pink sword was blocking the captain's sword. But that wasn't all, what was really surprising was that the pink sword was being handled by a girl who looked much younger than Anna.

Connie gave a push to get the captain away from her and the princess. "Get away from her!" shouted Connie.

At first, the captain was looking at Connie in surprise, but then that surprise was changed to a laugh, the whole crew started laughing too, though they didn't know why.

"Haha. What have we here? A girl who I don't know if she's brave or stupid." said NeckKiller.

"I prefer the first." said Connie without looking away from the captain.

"I wouldn't say that. In case you haven't noticed, young lady, you're on your own against all of us." said NeckKiller, stretching out his arms to point at the crew of several men standing behind him.

"You are not alone!" there was a shout before a pink shield was sent through the air and struck the head of the man who was holding the princess prisoner, knocking him unconscious and freeing him.

Before the captain could ask any questions, another boy the same age as Connie appeared beside him. Both Elsa and Anna were left with their eyes open to the unexpected turn of events.

NeckKiller looked at the two children who had dared to interfere with his plans and with an expression that showed anger, he pointed his sword at them. "Kill them!" shouted NeckKiller followed by a battle cry from the crew who began charging towards the younger members of the Crystal Gems.