Chapter Twenty Five

Regroup

ELSA

By the time she and Melody had gotten back to the Insurgency hideout at the edge of Old Town, it was already way past nightfall and Elsa found herself feeling anxious in anticipation of suspicious and wary stares the moment they walked through the door. What I wouldn't give to have Tracy's teleporting abilities.

Surprisingly, Charlotte and the others hadn't said anything about their late arrival. Instead, Melody and Tracy found the members of the Insurgency in the basement as well as Jade and Deirdre.

"How are the people upstairs?" Melody ventured upon their return.

"A bit shaken up." Charlotte said gruffly. "But they're alright."

"You sure it's a good idea to still stay here?" Elsa asked cautiously. "I mean, the Empire knows we're here."

"We're not staying here." Ivon's voice came from somewhere in the middle of the room where the big desk was. "The civilians are packing up and getting ready to move to our new base as we speak."

"Where?"

"Another old community building at the other end of Old Town." Charlotte said. "It's a lot smaller than this one, but it'll have to do. Not that it's going to matter for much longer."

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked.

The older woman cleared her throat. "The Empire's forced us to shift up our timetable. We have a plan to shake things up for the Empire. After tomorrow morning, we'll have levelled the playing field and they'll think twice before coming after us again. This will be our first assault against their regime. We-"

Before Charlotte could further elaborate on her plan, purple mist started to spark out of thin air in the dimly lit basement. Just in time, Elsa mused to herself. The mist organised itself into the shape of a portal, resembling the Crossing Point that she was familiar with. What a sight for sore eyes.

Out of the Crossing Point stepped Tracy and Will, who were immediately met by the few meagre weapons the Insurgency had been able to muster.

"Halt! Stay where you are!" One of the voices among the insurgents called out.

"Wait!" Elsa called out to Charlotte, holding out a hand to signal her to stop. "They're with us."

Charlotte glanced at her, at Ivon and then at the two newest guests before returning her gaze to Elsa. Then, she relented and gave the order for the insurgents to lower their weapons and to stand down.

"Sheesh, you guys need to lighten up a little." Tracy sighed.

"Good to see you guys." Melody smiled warmly.

"Would you mind explaining what's going on?" Charlotte demanded without directing the question at anyone in particular.

"The local rebellion huh?" Tracy glanced cheerily at Melody.

"They call themselves the Insurgency."

Elsa cleared her throat and looked nervously at Charlotte. "We..ummn…split up into two teams. These two, Tracy and Will…" here she gestured at the two newcomers - "Were sent with two others to spy on the Empire separately to gain more ground."

"How many of you are there?" Ivon's voice was laced with astonishment.

"Not enough." Elsa muttered.

"Where's Maui and Anna?" Deirdre asked.

"They're…" Will glanced at Tracy and then at Deirdre. "…holding down the fort while we bring you what we know."

"How did you know where to find us?" Charlotte demanded.

"Well, I can track people down by concentrating hard on their emotions and pinpointing their estimated location by looking through their eyes and experience the senses flowing through them." Tracy explained and when she saw the confused look on the woman's face, she added with a nonchalant shrug, "Magic stuff. It's all a little complicated."

"Right." The older woman shook her head. "Should I be surprised?"

"We could use whatever intelligence our guys have gathered." Melody offered, looking at Charlotte.

She grunted and gestured them over to the table where the plans had been laid.

"How's Anna?" Elsa found the opportunity to whisper to Tracy as they walked over to the table.

"She…had a rather rough encounter," Tracy started. "But she's hanging in there." She added quickly when she saw the worried look form on Elsa's face. "I'll explain later."

Elsa forced herself to shove down all the questions she had about Anna and turned her attention back to the table where Charlotte was beginning to elaborate on the Insurgency's plan.

"As I was saying before our two newcomers showed up," Charlotte said in a loud voice so that everyone in the basement could hear her. "We're about to mount our first attack against the Empire. We only have one shot, so we have to make it count." She glanced over at Ivon, who had joined her at the table.

"We'll be splitting ourselves into two groups to minimize drawing attention to ourselves. Alpha Team and Bravo Team." Ivon continued in a loud and authoritative voice that displayed years of military decorum. "The teams will comprise of a few members of the Insurgency as well as our newest members. Now that we know we have magic on our side, I think we should use it to our advantage." He gave a nod to the Warriors before continuing.

"Alpha team will hit the Merchant's Bank in the middle of New Town." Ivon jabbed his finger at a map laid out on the table, which had a route traced in pencil, and a cross had been marked out on the map. "Initially, we thought it was going to be hard to get into the Bank without being spotted by the patrols roaming the streets in New Town," he glanced at Tracy. "But after seeing what you can do, I think it shouldn't be a problem."

Tracy winked at him and Elsa felt a small surge of relief washing over her. It was good to have a friend with such vibrant personality present in a time like this when it was so easy to lose all hope and optimism.

"Now Alpha Team," Ivon continued. "Will ambush the Merchant's Bank in broad daylight. The First Imperials will need to know that we are there."

"Wait, why?" Melody frowned, and Elsa found herself asking the same question. That didn't sound like a tactically smart move.

"Ah, here's the beauty of it." Ivon smiled coyly.

"While Alpha Team ambushes the Merchant's Bank and attempts to destabilise the economy," Charlotte explained. "Bravo Team will be breaking into a facility across the street holding one of the Empire's weapons cache."

"So Alpha Team will hit the bank hard to draw the attention of all the First Imperials in the vicinity, giving Bravo Team the window they need to infiltrate and steal the stuff before they're noticed." Melody looked impressed.

Elsa stared at the map, noticing another cross being marked out on the map across the street from where the first cross had been drawn. She had to admit, it was quite a brilliant plan.

"Alpha Team's mission is primarily to distract the First Imperials and allow Bravo Team to steal the weapons and ammunition without being spotted." Ivon clarified. "And second, even though it's a distraction, we fully intend to topple the Empire's well-constructed economy here in Denmark. They've monopolised everything in the kingdom in one single bank that they now control. It's about time we give the wealth back to the people."

"And what's more," Charlotte smiled satisfactorily, a rarity for the gruff woman. "With all the weapons we'll be stealing from the Empire, we will be able to arm ourselves and the people on the streets. The common people need to be able to protect themselves in a time like this. They need to know that they can fight back and not take this occupation lying down."

"You better hope we can pull it off." Melody said. "Because if the Empire even gets a whiff of what's really going on, it's game over for us."

"And that's why we have to get the details right." Ivon said.

"Alright, what do you have in mind?" Elsa folded her arms. This whole mission with the Insurgency was a big risk, but that was what they had come to Denmark for in the first place.

Ivon chuckled. "You girls might want to sit down. This might take a while."

###

The planning and discussion, as Elsa had expected, wore on throughout most of the evening. She couldn't complain though. The Insurgency had to get this right no matter what, because as Melody had mentioned, if they made a single mistake and the Empire got wind of their primary intentions, the entire rebellion would crumble along with any hopes of liberation from occupation.

After it had all ended, the moving of equipment and supplies from the old base to the new one had been a logistical nightmare. Thankfully, it had been made easier by the fact that Tracy could teleport them to the new base with their items in the blink of an eye.

Still, there were too many things to move, and some had to be left behind on account of the fact that there was simply not enough space in the new base to house everyone and the logistics. People were the priority after all. Besides, Tracy's powers had limitations. She couldn't possibly hold open Crossing Points for extended periods of time as she had described the effort like keeping a muscle tense.

"Tracy, you got a minute?" Elsa finally said when they had finally settled into their new base at the other side of Old Town. She had waited for hours to ask about her sister, even though her eyelids were heavy with fatigue.

"Yeah, figured we don't need sleep before our big mission tomorrow." Tracy lazily turned to look at Elsa from where she was seated atop a large crate, resting her head against the wall. There had been no time to set up the makeshift beds as everyone had been too tired.

"Sorry," Elsa winced. "I just…want to ask about Anna. You said she's been through a rough day?"

"Oh wow, after all that's happened you would've thought it's been a few days. But can you believe we just left Arendelle this morning?" Tracy marvelled and then looked at an old clock that sat on a nearby table. "Or yesterday morning."

It's already one in the morning? "I won't take up too much of your time." Elsa said quickly. "We all need our sleep. I just wanna know-"

"About Anna, yeah I know." Tracy moved from her crate nearer to where Elsa was sitting on the floor and leaning against a large box. Thankfully the room they were in had been allocated to the Warriors which meant they were granted some privacy, but then again the room was filled with storage boxes and crates which didn't leave them much space.

"Is she alright? What happened?" Elsa asked anxiously.

"Don't worry, she's hanging in there. It's just that her meeting with the Empress went a little…unexpected."

"You guys weren't in there with her?"

"The Empress made it clear she wanted to talk to Anna alone." Tracy explained. "But she told me what happened afterwards. She was quite shaken up."

"Why?"

"You know the guy from the Southern Isles that went missing?"

Elsa bristled and her brows furrowed. "Hans."

"He's here." Tracy said, and a chill ran down Elsa's spine. "In the city."

"I don't understand."

"Hans is working with the Empress as an ambassador or something. Anna called it…Con-cons or something."

"Consul?"

"Yeah, that."

"So Eleanor sprung Hans from prison and made him the Empire's Consul." Elsa said, trying to get the facts right.

"Wait, there's more."

"What else could possibly surprise me at this point?" Elsa mumbled sarcastically.

Tracy looked uncomfortable at that comment. "The Empress made Anna an offer. She agreed to help fend off the Southern Isles and leave Arendelle intact on one condition. If Anna agreed to marry Hans and take him as the King of Arendelle."

Elsa's heavy eyelids suddenly grew wide as a jolt of electricity seemed to spark from the bottom of her spine up to her head. "What?"

"Well you asked."

"I don't believe this." Elsa put a hand to her forehead. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"What, do you think I've got the time or creativity to make this up?" Tracy sounded slightly offended.

Elsa's hand flopped lifelessly to her side and she slumped harder against the large box. "And Anna's considering the offer, isn't she?"

"How did you know that?"

"Sisters, remember? I know how she thinks."

"Look, if we succeed at this mission and eventually send the Empire packing, you don't even need to worry about this Hans guy. We'll nab him and get Maui to fly him back to the Southern Isles." Tracy said.

"You're right." Elsa closed her eyes. "Let's just get through this mission first." They only had a couple of hours before it was time to mount their first assault against the Empire which was supposed to begin before sunrise, and she could really do with some sleep, even if it was in a stuffy and dusty storage room.