To all things...
The sun was high in the sky again, but Elsa was far from rested. The accommodations had been fine, certainly a match for the guest rooms in her own palace, and due to their recent adventures Elsa had become accustomed to sleeping in more rough surroundings. No, the reason for her lack of sleep was entirely due to Julian. Or maybe it was due to her inability to truly let things go and Julian's stubbornness was the catalyst. Either way Julian was at the heart of the issue.
Four times that evening she had tossed and turned in the rather comfortable bed before tossing aside the covers and stalking to the door of the chambers, determined to tell Julian off and force him to leave this place with them. Unfortunately by the time she reached the door she would remember the last thing he said to her that evening, and she would angrily march back to the bed and throw herself face-first back into it. It was on the 5th time that Elsa started to get up where she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked over to see Anna, who was sharing the bed with her, looking at her with a mixture of concern and sympathetic sadness. Elsa thought she saw a bit of anger there too, though she was sure that it wasn't directed at her as Anna said in a soft, low voice, "Elsa, sleep. He made his choice, there's nothing more that we can do." Elsa knew that Anna was right, that it was Julian's choice to remain locked up until what seemed to be an inevitable, tragic end. She also knew that they had done everything they could to avoid that fate for him, which amounted to nothing. Elsa hated feeling so powerless, especially with there being so much power at her fingertips. Between her and Anna Elsa felt there was no foe they couldn't face, especially if they had convinced Julian to join them, but this wasn't an enemy they could fight. Technically it wasn't an enemy at all, just a people who wanted justice for the death of a beloved prince. Elsa also hated that she could relate to the point Julian had made. If Anna had not survived one of the times that Elsa's power had touched her, and their parents had been around for the aftermath, would the situation be so different? Would Elsa be the one to insist that the verdict be carried out? Would her parents have any choice in the matter? Elsa didn't really want to imagine it let alone know, and she was grateful that she didn't have to find out. So even though sleep would prove as elusive as ever Elsa settled back into bed and remained there until morning.
That's what transpired earlier the previous twilight. Now Elsa stood there feeling bone-weary but determined not to show it as Julian was escorted into the hall by his guards, wearing the shackles that he could have escaped from easily but didn't. In effect if was a picture that symbolized the situation Julian was in: there was nothing keeping him from getting out of here with them except for the shackles that he chose to wear.
As if he knew what Elsa was thinking about Julian met her gaze with his sympathetic one, but Elsa redirected her focus to his parents the King and Queen. King Karl looked much like he was yesterday, deep sadness simmering under his regal demeanor as he silently addressed in turn the chancellor, Elsa, and finally the members of the court who were filing in. By contrast the Queen was much more composed than she had been when they dispersed yesterday: her grief was still visible, but she wasn't crying as openly as she was back then.
Before Elsa could wonder what prompted the change the members of the court took their seats and the King asked them, "Members of the court, have you reached a verdict?"
"We have, Your Majesty," the court's chosen representative said solemnly. When the King nodded for him to continue the speaker said, "Based on the testimony we concluded that the defendant held no ill will against Prince Miles, nor could we find he had any reason or desire to do him harm. However, due to his confession and the lack of any evidence to the contrary we regretfully have no choice but to find Julian Hines guilty on the charge of fratricide."
"Understood," the King confirmed, then he asked Julian, "Defendant, do you understand the gravity of the crime which you have been convicted?"
"I do, Your Majesty," Julian told him somberly. As in Elsa's fever dream, Julian didn't seem sad about his own fate but rather for those who had staked their hopes on being able to change it. Those like Elsa. Once more she felt a desire to just grab Julian and have him make a portal so they could leave this place. However, that was even less possible now before all these witnesses than it was when it was the dead of the night and they had only a handful of professional yet merely human guards to worry about. Trying something like that now would certainly result in someone getting hurt, and Julian wouldn't like that one bit. In spite of the harsh yet true things Julian had said to her last night Elsa still found herself caring about his opinion, still was worried about him, and she wished that she didn't.
"Very well," the King sighed wearily, "This case has illustrated a need to review our laws to ensure that justice is available for all and that the punishment fits the crime and isn't excessive or unfair. Once this unpleasantness is over I assure you that we will do exactly that, starting with this one. Unfortunately the law prohibits conducting such business during a case that the outcome may be altered by, so I regretfully have no alternative but to sentence Sir Julian Hines to death by execution."
With that the stone that seemed to be lodged in Elsa's chest dropped down into her stomach, making her feel nauseous. Elsa felt like she was trapped once again in her fever dream. The moment was so unreal that Elsa started to wonder if she had even woken up in the first place, if everything since their escape from the admiral was part of one long dream that she was having while she was dying in some unknown place. It would explain some of the more surreal moments she'd experienced, like Anna suddenly getting fire powers, or how yesterday the queen was acting like a mother whose child was dying, yet today when Julian's death sentence was actually declared her only reaction was to dab a tear out of the corner of her eye. Elsa started to wonder if this was a metaphor, that her brain was trying to tell her that her own mother was secretly glad to not have to deal anymore with a daughter with such a troublesome power and that it was okay to let go. This led to such thoughts as had her mother and father truly returned from the trip on which they were lost? So much of her life since she embraced her powers, her responsibilities as queen, and the possibility of a life with her sister that doesn't involve just hiding in her room was just so surreal that if someone was to ask her what was real and what was a dream Elsa would be unavailable to tell you.
Elsa was so lost in the unreality of the situation that she wasn't sure if she'd heard the King correctly when he said, "However, due to the fact that you did return to this kingdom to face the consequences of that long ago event when you didn't have to, that you remained even though nobody here had the power to stop you from leaving, I have seen fit to grant you one final wish within reason as well as allowing you to choose the manner of your execution."
"Thank you," Julian gratefully told his father, "My final wish is simple: I want to use the portal one last time to send my friends back home. They can watch the proceedings through the portal as long as I can maintain the opening, and they can stay here as long as they want until then, but they have to go back home before the execution, while I still have the power to send them."
"We will see it done," the King told him with a nod.
"As for the manner of my execution, I've had a while to ponder that one," Julian informed them with a far-off look in his eyes, "Ever since that terrible night, one thing that has monopolized my thoughts was Miles' death. Far too often my mind was plagued with questions like, 'was his death quick and painless or did he suffer?' 'Did he die believing that I would save him like always, or did he recognize that something was wrong before the end?' 'Was he happy, sad, angry, confused? Or was he too caught up in the sensation of the fall to process what was happening before he was gone?' I'll likely never get the answers to those questions, but at least in some small way I want to experience what he had in those final moments. So that is my choice: death by electrocution."
Elsa was surprised by this suggestion, partly because she wasn't sure this was a possibility for him due to how he had told her how his power works. Unfortunately it seemed like Elsa wasn't the only one who noticed how this request was odd as the chancellor scoffed and exclaimed, "You can not be serious!"
"I assure you, chancellor, that I am quite serious," Julian responded in such a solemn yet firm tone that Elsa was instantly convinced that Julian truly did want to die in that way.
The chancellor was much more skeptical, saying in a derisive tone, "Please, you honestly believe that we're the same clueless people that you had left behind all those years ago? You think that we didn't find out all about your power when we looked into the true cause of Prince Mile's death?"
"Did you also find out my limits during this investigation of yours?" Julian asked him simply.
"Your limits?" the chancellor asked, confused by the line this discussion has taken.
"Yes, my limits. Every living being has a limit of what they are capable of doing, where no amount of preparation can take them beyond. It's why you won't see a mortal man single-handedly tearing down this castle even with armored gauntlets protecting his rather fleshy hands, nor would they be able to drain Lake Mariniez by themselves with a straw. Even those who, like myself, were born with or were granted special abilities have limits that those abilities cannot surpass," Julian explained, "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you did not, and honestly how would you be able to? I myself didn't come across anything that took me close to my limits until years after I got lost in that storm. A few years ago I had to channel and redirect a 1.21 gigawatt to strike a certain clocktower at precisely 10:02 pm because a good number of time travels taking place within a 2 1/2 week window had created a Butterfly Effect that shifted the storm just enough that it would have resulted in a catastrophic change in historical events had I not acted to correct it." When he saw Anna flinch at the mention of lightning Julian got an apologetic look on his face as he explained, "This was real lightning, the naturally-produced kind, and though it's often more powerful than the little sparks that princess that hurt you throws around the odds of being struck by one are quite low unless you're holding a conductor during a storm and daring one to hit you." Julian then redirected his attention to the chancellor and continued, "Anyway, holding that much power inside myself, even for just a moment, came pretty close to killing me. The device that I came up with and that this country's best artisans would create, would channel 30 times that into my body and leave me no way to discharge it. That much juice being pumped into my body would cause my cells to burst like a paper cup filled with too much water within moments. Before my demise could become too horrifying for any onlookers, however, a burst of energy would be unleashed which, with my defenses brought to its limits by the energy overload, would instantly cremate my remains and reduce any possibility of my survival to zero. In short it would be a very quick, very painful yet certain death."
"So you say, but some of us are still skeptical," the chancellor told him, "You could well be spinning a yarn to pull one over on us."
"Tell you what, we can do it my way, and if by some miracle I happen to survive then you can choose a method to finish the job."
"Well, chancellor, will that satisfy you?" King Karl asked him.
"That will indeed," the chancellor confirmed, "and you can be sure that my method would be far more effective than some fancy little light show."
"And if it doesn't, then maybe I've been cursed to live with my guilt and regret for all time," Julian said morosely. Elsa was still dumbstruck. The odd turn this trial had taken, as well as Julian's almost nonchalant attitude he was treating his upcoming death with, did nothing to deny that this wasn't just a dream and in fact supported it without outright confirming it
"Then we'll commence the preparations for Sir Julian's execution without delay," the King declared in a lifeless tone as he brought his sceptre down on the ground with an echoing boom, upon which the court, Elsa included, filed out of the room.
The next couple of days Elsa and Anna followed Julian and his contingent of guards as they made their way around the different artisans in the kingdom. The knowledge that what they were making was a device that would be used to kill Julian dampened Elsa's enthusiasm somewhat, but in spite of herself she couldn't help but be fascinated with how involved Julian was with the whole process. Some of the criticisms She had heard during the rounds included how the angle of the curve of some parts weren't right, how they needed to shave down some rough edges to ensure that they lock together properly, or how this part or that one needed to be made of certain materials due to their conductivity to electricity or their resistance to the same.
Now Elsa didn't sleep any better in those evenings than she had prior to the verdict, but at least she remained in the bed so as to not disturb her sister. Still Elsa could tell that Anna was picking up on when Elsa was feeling particularly anxious as she would feel her hand rubbing her back in those moments.
Finally the device was completed just before noon on the third day, far faster than Elsa had expected. Its main body consisting of a large ring perched vertically on a pyramidal frustum base, the ring had at its mid-cardinal points restraints not unlike the ones Elsa herself was placed in after she was captured by Hans of the Southern Isles, an antenna towering from its apex and some sort of metal crown dangling from a cable below. From a distance the shiny ring looked like it might have been forged in one giant piece, but when examined up close Elsa could see the very fine seams where the different sections were joined together. All in all this was a fine work of art, one that seemed to sparkle even in the overcast sky that was growing darker every minute, but Elsa couldn't bring herself to appreciate it knowing full well what it was made for.
To the left of the device Elsa saw Julian standing with his manacled hands outstretched, sparks like mini-lightning bolts rolling off them and rising into the air like a reverse rain storm until they faded from view when they reached Julian's eye level.
"What are you doing?" Elsa asked, curiosity outpacing her other muddled emotions.
"I'm seeding the clouds," Julian told her, "As impressive as my people's technical accomplishments are for this era they don't have the capability to generate the wattage I need even with my help, and even if they could I would not want to disrupt history by giving them that knowledge. That's why I'm encouraging Mother Nature to share a bit of her power with us, and I'm taking additional measures to ensure that every lightning bolt that falls today does so right here. when I'm done this will make the Hill Valley storm look like a child's birthday party in comparison."
"What about this thing?" Elsa asked, gesturing towards the device Julian had helped them build, "Wouldn't this change things?"
Julian shook his head no as he said, "It's utterly useless unless you can predict when and where a lightning bolt is going to hit, or you're able to coax one down yourself. Besides, I've taken measures to ensure that this is the one and only time this device will be used. It's going to be quite the show."
Elsa looked over her shoulder and saw some people bringing out the waterfall fountain that Julian used as a portal during his trial. Once they filled the reservoir with water Julian shot out a spark towards it and got the fountain running. Feeling the moment she had been dreading closing in Elsa leaned in and whispered desperately, "It's not too late, you know? We could be off this platform and through that portal before anyone could react, and if the guards prove a bit quicker than expected I can erect some ice walls to keep them from stopping us. Absolutely no one needs to get hurt here, and with this many witnesses your parents shouldn't be blamed for your escape."
"But this era's Arrendale would still be in danger of retaliation," Julian gently reasoned, "It means a lot to me that you still want to save my life, especially after the other night, and I wish that things could have turned out differently. However, this is the way it has to be, and for that I'm sorry."
At that moment Elsa didn't care that what he said the evening after the trial had hurt her. Elsa just leaned in, wrapped her arms around the lower area of his torso in an embrace, and while her face was hidden from public view she silently released the tears that she had been holding back. After what felt like a long time but was probably less than half a minute she felt Julian's strong arms around her shoulders and something soft on top of her head, most likely his cheek as he returned her embrace, and Elsa was unsure if the wet drop that fell on her head was of rain from the summoned storm or was a tear, but Julian's voice was low as he said, "I'm really very sorry for what you're going through, and though it may not feel like it now I'm sure that it will get better in time." She then felt the chain of his shackles briefly catch her hair and lift it up as Julian removed his arms from her shoulders and say, "Now, however, it's time for you to return to your home."
A crackle and a pop later Elsa turned just in time to see the bolt Julian fired off strike the artificial waterfall and a portal form on its surface, through which she could see her parents and Kristoff speaking frantically with Grandpabbie, and the glow that illuminated them suggested to Elsa that the other end had formed on the waterfall that was a short walk from the Valley of Living Stones. Seeing her parents again reignited the homesickness in her heart and gave her the strength to pull away from Julian, giving him a nod before walking to the end of the end of the stage.
No sooner had she got to that point than Anna took up station in front of Julian. Anna looked pretty pissed off, but Elsa could tell that she was trying to reign in her anger and not become a human torch as she said, "I'd like to thank you for helping us get back home, but don't think that this means that I forgive you for what you did to Elsa."
"I perfectly understand, believe me," Julian said with a disparaging smile, "Please take care of Elsa for me?"
"I'll take care of Elsa because she's my sister and we need each other, perhaps now more than ever, not because you asked me to," Anna responded in a proudly defiant manner.
"Of course, I wouldn't have it any other way," Julian said with a smile, looking relieved. Anna didn't seem to know what to say to that, so she turned and marched away from Julian straight past Elsa without looking back, and Elsa followed her off the stage.
As they got closer to the portal it seemed like their acquaintances on the other side had finally noticed the portal as they were racing around the edge of the retention pond towards it. Anna likewise increased her pace as she drew nearer to the portal until she was practically running as she leaped through it into the arms of their parents who had just got there and seemed beyond overjoyed to see that Anna was alive and well and back home. Elsa, by contrast, slowed down as she got closer to the portal due to her frequently looking over her shoulder to the execution platform, where she saw the guards placing a small staircase at the base of the device, then when Julian climbed up on it the guards unlocked hits shackles. When raised one of his arms to lock it in one of the restraints on the device Elsa decided that she couldn't watch it any longer and closed her eyes and walked the remaining distance to the portal.
Once through Elsa found herself being swarmed and affectionately smothered by her weeping parents, which gave Anna enough breathing room to speak semi-privately to Kristoff (Olaf and Sven were hanging around nearby, but both were watching silently with their goofy smiles. With how she was feeling Elsa would have welcomed the distraction of being a big sister and helping Anna with what was apparently troubling her judging by the look on her face, but she was currently unable to hear Anna very well over her parents nor break free from their embrace (and with how good their arms felt around her at that moment she didn't want to) but her parents eventually calmed down enough for her father to say, "My girls, you can not know how happy it makes me to see you both again! Elsa, my child, the captain and crew you saved from that terrible storm said that they didn't know what happened to you afterwards, and since you weren't recovered along with them we feared the worst. We didn't even know what had happened to Anna until one of the crewmen admitted to having spotted her hiding amongst the cargo."
"One of the crew knew that Anna had stowed away?" Elsa asked, briefly irritated but feeling no heat behind it so her irritation quickly passed, "I'll have to speak with him about it later: I wouldn't have had to go to such dangerous extremes to save her if I'd known she was there to begin with."
Elsa's mother, who was gingerly touching one side of her face, asked in a concerned tone, "Are you really okay my dear? Does this hurt at all?"
Elsa realized that Anna must have told them about their encounter with the admiral of that other world and the injury she had sustained to her face. "I'm fine Mom. Good as new and completely scar-free: magic healing at its finest," Elsa assured her mom as she held that hand against her face, then she looked over at Anna and continued, "or its worst, depending on your stance on what it cost Anna to have it enacted."
"I heard about that," Elsa's father told her, and they all paused for a moment to look over at Anna. There they saw Kristoff looking confused as Anna maintained an arm's distance away as she held up a hand wreathed in flames. Olaf, bless his simple heart, looked like he really wanted to touch it despite Anna physically holding him back with her non-flaming hand. Elsa's father sighed as he continued, "How do you think that we should handle this, Elsa? Anna has never been the 'conceal, don't feel' type, though I suppose that philosophy did more harm than good in the long run, and her power is possibly more dangerous than yours was if not more so."
Elsa nodded as she said, "Anna has made faster progress towards understanding and controlling her power than I did mine, likely due to someone properly teaching her how. I'll pick up where they left off, working with her until her control over it is absolute and it doesn't flare up when she gets a bit emotional. Until then I think that I should move back into her room, sharing a bedroom again like we had before the accident."
"Isn't that dangerous, though?" Elsa's mom asked in concern, "I mean, can't her powers hurt you?"
Elsa nodded again with a smile as she said, "And mine can hurt her, perhaps even easier than before. The cost of the healing spell. However it would be far more dangerous for her to be locked by herself in her room with her powers raging out of control. At any rate I'm the one who best knows what she's going through, and the one best qualified to bring her back under control in those situations. There really is no alternative, and I'm glad to do it."
"If you feel that's best, then it will be done," Elsa's father acknowledged, then he turned and looked at the portal still shining on the waterfall and said, "That is one of Julian's, isn't it? He found you girls and sent you back home, but why did he not come with you?"
Elsa tried to push it out of her mind, but her father's words prompted her to turn around and look. Through the still open portal Elsa saw that Julian was now fully secured into the device, each of his limbs akimbo in a restraint. A guard was placing the metal crown on Julian's head while his father the king was saying something to him, though Elsa couldn't hear what it was due to the distance and the rumbling of the clouds on the other side.
The details that Elsa was seeing now, such as the crackle of electricity that was stretching between the horizontal rods of the antenna, and how the guard who had been adjusting the crown on Julian's head suddenly released it and backed quickly away as if it'd grown hot, snapped Elsa out of the fog of unreality she had been wandering around in since the pronouncement of Julian's verdict. Before anyone could react Elsa sprinted back in the direction of the portal. She didn't know how she was going to stop them exactly, but Elsa knew in her heart that she couldn't stand by and do nothing while they killed Julian. When she was a couple of steps away Elsa leaped the remaining distance and...
BZZZZONG! Elsa felt a tingling sensation as she was bounced back in the opposite direction, landing on her butt in chest-high spring water. When the disorientation wore off Elsa stood up and approached the portal again, reaching out as she did so. Just before her hands could make contact and pass through the portal an invisible wall stopped her. This unseen barrier tingled like static electricity where she touched it, was flexible enough that she didn't hurt herself on it, yet solid enough that she wasn't able to make contact with the portal no matter how much force she used against the barrier. Elsa tried beating against it with her bare fists, throwing her shoulder into it, pulverising it while wearing spiked ice gauntlets, even conducting an all-out assault with her massive ice armor. While Elsa herself was not harmed by the barrier it shredded any ice creations she used against it. Even her dress, which was altered by her powers, suffered damage from the barrier: however, the contact was so light and brief that damage was mitigated to a frayed stitch. Elsa briefly considered turning Marshmallow loose on the barrier, but due to him being a creation of her powers him coming to harm. Likewise Elsa didn't want to try against it her ice blast, Anna's fire or the blending of the two. This stream fostered the special algae that Aurora, the Flightmare dragon Elsa bonded with and brought home from Berk, fed upon, and Elsa didn't want to risk anything happening to what might be Aurora's only source of food around here. Therefore Elsa reverted to beating on the barrier with her bare fists as she tearfully screamed, "Stop! You can not do this! It's not right!"
By then Elsa's family had come up, stopping short so as to give her some space, but apparently they were close enough to see as Elsa's father asked, "Wait, is that...?"
"Julian's home. He found his way back, and is now atoning for his brother's death with his own life. Just as Julian always wanted," Anna acknowledged in a somber tone. Elsa didn't pay them much mind as all her efforts were on trying to get past this barrier As such she noticed that the flashes in the clouds above the platform on the other side of the portal were growing more frequent, the rumble of the thunder growing louder and more menacing. She also noticed that Julian and his mother had glanced her way as his mother said something to him that she couldn't hear, to which Julian shook his head no and replied with something just as inaudible. Julian's mother then bent his head forward to kiss him on the forehead before descending the ministeps and leaving the stage. Then, as the lightshow overhead was reaching a crescendo, Julian locked eyes with Elsa and said something, and even though she still couldn't hear from the number of times he had said it recently she knew exactly what words escaped his lips:
"I'm sorry."
Then the first lightning bolt struck the antenna like the hammer of God. Immediately Julian's face twisted into a rictus of pain, and even though he didn't scream out Elsa could tell that he wanted to. Before Elsa could wonder why Julian would subject himself to what was obviously such an agonizing means of execution the second lightning bolt fell. And then the third. Then the fourth and the fifth. Soon the lightning bolts were outpacing the raindrops in both speed and frequency. It got to the point where they were falling so fast and frequently that Elsa could not tell the individual bolts anymore. She didn't give it any real thought at the time, but Elsa noticed certain areas around the circumference of the device start glowing one after another that looked like symbols (though they could have been just imperfect joints that were heating up from the massive voltage being channeled through them) until there was a group 3 on each side. Finally it seemed that Julian could no longer keep hiding the pain he was experiencing as he finally opened his eyes (which seemed to be glowing) and he bellowed an agonizing scream. Then, as the lightning bolts falling onto the device seemed to merge into one massive continuous one and bloody tears leaked from his eyes, a 7th glowing symbol appeared on the device above his head, then the inner circumference of the device behind Julian was filled with a glowing energy that exploded out like the splash caused by a boulder being dropped into a lake, swallowing Julian completely and silencing his scream. When the energy "splash" settled back into the device, leaving Elsa the impression that she was looking at the rippling surface of a glowing lake from directly above, Julian was gone: the only sign that he was ever there was a small pile of ashes that fell on the portable steps before the device. An eerie silence filled the dusk on both sides of the portal for the breadth of a heartbeat, the only sounds heard was the rain on the other side of the portal which picked up in intensity in the void left by the lightning that was no longer falling. Then the portal and the barrier shielding it vanished almost simultaneously, the last thing Elsa saw through it was the energy lake within vanishing as the device itself collapsed in a pile of smouldering scrap metal.
Without the barrier to hold her up Elsa collapsed to her knees, the waterfall falling on the back of her head. Elsa didn't really care about that however. The pain in her heart needed an outlet, so she lowered her face into her hands right there and sobbed.
She wasn't sure how long she kneeled there letting her grief flow, but when she felt arms come around for an embrace from behind Elsa looked over at her left shoulder to see Anna rest her cheek there as she looked back at her sister and said sympathetically, "I'm sorry, Elsa, I really am. " Almost immediately after Aurora, who had been skulking around in the treetops together with Thunderhead, Anna's thunderdrum dragon, shielded Elsa from the waterfall by resting her wing on Elsa's head and her head in Elsa's, and Elsa expressed her affectionate gratitude to her companions by gently gripping one of Anna's arms with her right hand and petting Aurora's head with her left.
Elsa then felt on her right shoulder the gentle touch of a hand that was unfamiliar but felt like it should be, and a voice that tickled the back of her mind despite her being sure that she didn't know it at all said in a soft remorseful tone, "Me too, Elsa. I'm so very sorry." Elsa didn't know where the impulse came from, as neither the voice nor the touch felt threatening, but instinct had Elsa releasing her sister and swinging her left hand around to her right where...
SMACK! The sound of the slap echoed loudly around the forest and against the waterfall that was now behind her and set everyone on edge in the presence of the unexpected guest, with Aurora (who Elsa's spin put her on her right) lowering her head and growled menacingly. Elsa, on the other hand, felt absolutely mortified. The person Elsa had slapped with all her might was an unfamiliar yet stunningly beautiful woman. Her complexion was practically flawless even in spite of where Elsa had slapped her starting to turn an angry red. The woman's chocolate brown hair was cut far shorter than any woman Elsa had seen in her travels, even in New York (maybe Toph came close) but the windswept look excited Elsa in a way that she never felt before. Her eyes were so deep and blue that Elsa felt like she could drown in them, but by the same token Elsa felt like that wouldn't be a bad way to go. The way the woman's fit body filled out the seamless uniform of unknown material and origin (which again seemed familiar to Elsa), with the proportions not being too big or small for any body part, should have made Elsa jealous. Instead Elsa felt a deep and abiding shame that she would even unintentionally harm such a goddess. Even the small scar on her chin, which was oddly familiar to Elsa, didn't detract from her beauty but rather enhanced it. Elsa wanted to apologize to this strange and beautiful woman for slapping her without reason, but her heart was beating so fast that she couldn't form the words.
When Elsa finally calmed herself to be able to say anything she found her words failing her again when the woman put a hand on her reddened and slightly puffy cheek and the corner of her lips curled up into a smile as she said, "Wow, there's the slap I was expecting last week!"
Elsa's mind was a blank, as what this woman was saying made no sense, so all she could manage in response was "Huh?"
"I mean I know that certain details in my glimpses of the future can change, especially when time travel is involved," the woman continues, her eyes sparkling beautifully, "but with everywhere I have been you'd think that I could tell the difference between a glade outside of Storybrook and the waterfall north of the Valley of Living Stones."
Elsa was utterly baffled by what this woman was saying. Then Elsa put the different context clues (the hair, the eyes, the scar, the outfit) together with what the woman said and suddenly Elsa gasped and exclaimed, "Julian!?"
Elsa saw that Anna and her parents looked as shocked and baffled as she felt, but the now decidedly female Julian looked merely confused as he... as she said, "What? Of course it's me. You're acting like you don't even recognize me."
"Well you're not exactly looking quite like... yourself," Anna explained while pointing down at the water they were standing in. Taking the hint Julian bent over to look at her reflection in the water, and before she was finished Elsa saw Julian's eyes widen as she had to look past a pair of additions that they were pretty sure weren't there before. "Well! This is... different," Julian remarked as she physically examined the new and altered portions of her anatomy in a manner that wouldn't be considered indecent to do in public (though there are those who might consider it borderline scandalous.)
"So what happened, Julian?" Anna asked him, "What caused you to look like this?"
"I'm not sure..." Julian admitted.
"Not sure what you mean, my daughters," Elsa's father spoke up, "Julian doesn't look like she's changed much since she first came to Arrendale to help us."
Elsa was confused by her father's statement. Firstly by his saying that he didn't notice any changes Julian had went through when, in fact, Elsa clearly remembers that when Julian had saved her parents and brought them back to Arrendale he had been a man at the time. Moreover her father was referring to Julian as a "her" so casually as though that indeed was what he had always known him... or rather her as since the beginning. Elsa's confusion deepened and caused her to become troubled when her mother said, "I was just concerned that you had hurt your hand. However, if I was still queen I would have done far worse than merely slap Julian for what she did to you."
First her father and then her mother, and besides herself the only ones who knew something was amiss was Anna and Julian? Maybe not everyone, Elsa corrected herself when she saw that Grandpabbie had a quizzical look on his face. Maybe he was picking something up with his memory magic? In any case there was only one here who might have any answers, so Elsa turned towards Julian and tried her best to keep the worry out of her voice as she asked, "What's going on?"
Julian got a thoughtful look on her face as she said, "I'm not exactly sure."
Elsa picked up on Julian's look and her wording, so she asked, "Any ideas?"
"A couple," Julian told her, "Though they're both rather unlikely." When Anna gave her an impatient and irritated look while Elsa gestured for her to continue Julian said, "My first thought was that Loki was behind this as this is the kind of thing that he would pull."
"Loki? As in the God of Mischief?" Elsa asked in surprise, "He's real too?"
"Too?" Elsa's mother echoed.
"Pretty much all of the Norse gods are real, as are many others of other mythologies," Julian confirmed, "Though,as you know about Thor, they're not actually gods, and between Hela, Thanos and Gor there aren't as many as there used to be, with Loki initially being among the casualties."
"What do you mean by 'initially'?" Anna asked.
"After Thanos used the Infinity Stones to eliminate half of all life in the universe the Avengers went on a mission to recover the Stones from an earlier point in time in order to bring those lost back," Julian explained, "However, a mishap during the mission resulted in Loki escaping custody after his assault on New York, which diverted him from the future where he was killed by Thanos while collecting those Stones."
"So if this Loki is still around, then why don't you think that he's responsible for this?" Elsa asked.
"Because after he escaped with the Tesseract, something that didn't happen originally, Loki fell into the crosshairs of the Time Variance Authority," Julian explained, "The TVA is a group that polices the 'Sacred Timeline', tracking down and apprehending anomalies that divert history from its established course, following which they revert any changes that were made. Fortunately they are either unaware of any timelines outside of the one they're protecting or else have no interest in them, but last time I checked Loki was still in their custody."
"There is one other possibility that I can think of on why this change would have taken place, though I find it just as unlikely as my previous theory," Julian continued, "Basically something happened that caused a change in the past that affected me and my birth, something that changed what gender I was born. However we showed up in my kingdom after I had originally left it, so nothing we did should have changed... well, me."
"Well what about that device you had built to electrocute yourself?" Anna suggested thoughtfully, "Would that have had some effect?"
"Yeah, what about that? I mean we saw you get incinerated!" Elsa asked, feeling her earlier anxiety coming back, "How did you survive!?"
"About that, that wasn't really an electrocution device although it could be used as one," Julian admitted as she blushed and rubbed the back of her head, which Elsa found rather cute, "There were a few necessary changes, but it was my recreation of a stargate."
"The stargate is an ancient device of extraterrestrial origin that, with proper operation, allows for near-instant transportation across vast distances," Julian explained, "I'm talking about traveling to worlds that you couldn't see even through the best telescopes future technology has to offer. Think of them as being kinda like the portals I can make, except the stargates are perhaps even more limited in that you need a working pair to travel through: one to travel from and the one you're going to. You also need the spatial address of where the stargate you're going to, dialing in the six points around where you're going to followed by the point you're leaving from."
Elsa recalled the seven areas that glowed on Julian's device and asked, "So the symbols that appeared...?"
"Constellations," Julian answered her, "triangulating a point between them. It takes an incredible amount of energy to form a stable wormhole, however, even more than I can normally provide. Hence the lightning barrage. I just let the energy flowing through it activate the pre-programmed dialing sequence while I stored the necessary energy for activation. Wasn't easy, either. I honestly felt like I was going to die, and if I held onto that energy for a moment longer I very likely wouldn't have."
"So is that the change you made to this stargate?" Anna asked Julian, lingering agitation making her tone curt, "You storing up the lightning it fed into you until you released it back into the machine?"
"One of them," Julian confirmed, "Without a unit to store the energy the stargate will be unable to activate should they try to recreate it, and since the ability to store or generate energy would itself be enough to change the course of history I made sure to not leave them with that technology and instead filled the role myself. I also left it without a dialing device or even the ability to enter other addresses, so even if they worked out the power situation they still wouldn't be able to make much out of it. The biggest change that I made in this reconstruction was in the materials used. As the stargates were not made on Earth they weren't constructed from materials found on Earth, and many of those were tougher and more efficient in many ways than those found here. My stargate knockoff was constructed entirely from earthen materials, and I deliberately chose those which would get the job done yet wouldn't survive more than one activation. I also deliberately introduced flaws in its design, particularly in the circuitry and dial wheel, so that when it fell apart...it did fall apart, didn't it?"
Remembering how the device colapsed after she saw Julian apparently get consumed by it, Elsa felt her breath catch before she could say, "It did, completely."
Julian breathed a sigh of relief as she said, "Good. So between the flaws I designed into the construction of my stargate and the fire damage from its collapse there's very little chance of them getting them fixed up or rebuilt, especially since the ink I used to draw up the blueprints was designed to eat the parchment it's on after 3 days of exposure to air."
"Sounds like you had thought of everything," Anna said as she crossed her arms.
"Not everything," Julian corrected her as she looked at herself again, "We still don't know what caused this, and that not knowing bothers me."
"Karma?" Anna suggested bitingly.
Julian was still looking at herself, examining the top and bottom of her arms, when she gave a self-derisive laugh and said, "when I ran away from home after I accidentally killed my brother Miles and my parents wouldn't let me tell anybody what really happened, when the ship I stowed away on was being destroyed by the storm we were caught in I thought it was karma giving me the punishment it thought I was running away from. Since then I have mostly adopted the belief that we either let others shape our fate unless we take a hand in shaping it ourselves, only thinking of karma in the most ironic sense. Maybe karma was just waiting for a moment like this, however, where it could remind me that science can't... explain..."
As Julian was speaking she began to stagger and put a hand to her head. Then her eyes rolled up in her head as she started to collapse, and Elsa cried out "Julian!" as she reached out and caught Julian before she could fall into the pond. Elsa was scared because Julian's pulse was barely perceptible and her body wasn't as warm as it should have been, being a good few degrees cooler than Anna's was when she was no longer an ice statue, yet barely warmer than Anna was when she was killed by Azula's lightning. Then Julian's body grew warmer, her pulse got stronger, and Elsa found herself able to breathe easier when Julian's eyes fluttered open and she said, "Sorry about that, guess that lightning took more out of me than I thought."
"Are you going to be okay?" Elsa asked Julian, feeling relieved that she was looking better but still rather concerned about her.
"Physically I'm alright, just drained and a bit sore. I'm still troubled by not knowing what exactly happened to me, and I'm concerned about what happened with my people after my 'execution', if they were able to move on after my brother got justice, but at the moment I couldn't manage even a spark let alone the smallest of portals to look in on them," Julian informed them, "I just need time to rest and recover, but I left my few valuables behind as I didn't expect to be leaving home again so I have nothing for an inn. Grandpabbie, do you mind if I were to stay with you and yours for a couple of days, just until I'm well enough to get on my way again?"
"Of course," Grandpabbie told her with a bow, "After all that you have done for this kingdom and our Queen we would be more than happy to do what we can to make you comfortable here until you're better."
Elsa looked down at Julian resting in her lap. In spite of what she said Julian didn't look that mu~ch better, like a stiff breeze could blow her over. The idea that Julian could manage roughing it outside even in the company of Grandpabbie and his clan of rock trolls, Elsa couldn't see it.
Elsa then looked over at Anna who met her gaze. Elsa could tell that Anna was not pleased with the fact that Julian was here, that she hadn't been happy with Julian since he refused their offer to break him out before his sentencing and execution. Anna's attitude towards Julian likely grew worse when Elsa was forced to watch his execution while being helpless to do something about it, and that attitude didn't improve with Julian's survival and concurrent change of gender.
This presented Elsa with a quandary. On one hand Elsa didn't want to leave Julian in a situation where she might not get better. On the other hand Elsa didn't want to ostracize Anna now (or ever, really), when Anna needed to adjust to her new powers and learn how to not let them interfere with her life, and Elsa was afraid that appearing to side with Julian might do just that.
Anna, whose gaze was still locked with Elsa's, must have seen what was going on behind her eyes, for she sighed and said in a begrudging tone, "Grandpabbie is right, we do owe you for helping out not only the kingdom but also us personally. Therefore you should stay in a guest room in the palace until you are good to go."
"Really?" Elsa asked in surprise.
"Are you sure?" Julian also asked, "I mean you seemed to not be very happy with me."
"Well I'm not! In fact I'm finding the urge to fry you up like a slice of bacon hard to resist," Anna admitted, "However to do so, or even to leave you to fend for yourself in the shape you're in, would unfortunately cause Elsa further distress which is the last thing that I want. So you're welcome to stay at the palace for as long as you need or as long as Elsa permits it, whichever comes first."
"I... I don't know what to say," Julian said as she attempted to sit up and face Anna properly.
"I do: You can promise to not stir up anymore drama around here," Anna told Julian in a low tone, grabbing a handful of Julian's uniform and pulled her up a bit while flames covered Anna's right arm up to her shoulder as she said, "Because if I ever have to see Elsa cry like that again because of you I swear I will finish what your people started!"
Julian didn't flinch away from Anna's flames or her fury, instead looking remorseful as she said, "Of course."
This seemed to douse Anna's fire, both figuratively and somewhat literally, and Anna set Julian back down as she said in a softer tone, "I mean it, I never want to see Elsa like that ever again."
"Me either," Julian agreed, "Once was one time too many."
"We should be going now as she walked back to the shore, giving Thunderhead's head a rub as he came down from the treetops to greet her, "We need to get my stuff moved back into Elsa's room and I'd rather that get done by tonight." Anna then climbed onto Thunderhead's back and helped Kristoff get on behind her before they took off. Elsa then climbed up onto Aurora and helped Julian up as well, making sure that Julian got on in front of her so that she could make sure that Julian didn't fall off, as she turned towards her parents and said, "We'll see you back at the palace. Elsa's parents then returned to the horses they had arrived on and she spotted the rock trolls turning Sven loose from the sled to follow, then she reached around Julian to grab the reins (appreciating how her arms tingled and goosebumps were raised where they made contact) and with a snap of the reins Aurora lifted off and flew them back home.