Author's Note: Who told me senior year would be easy? Whoever you were you were either lying or you didn't care about making good grades and getting into college. Life is difficult, guys. That's my only excuse. Three months since I've uploaded anything on here. I know 'cause almost all my saved documents were gone. Luckily I have them on file on my computer, so I didn't lose any writing.
Frozone wandered around the halls of the North Pole. He had been there several days already, but still hadn't seen all of the amazing rooms. There were rooms for different countries, child toys, animal toys, and a whole wing devoted entirely to weapons. Already he had gotten lost a dozen times.
He wasn't sure why he loved exploring the workshop so much. Maybe it brought out the child in him, or maybe he still couldn't believe that Santa was real. And then there was that vague, nagging suspicion in the back of his mind that something was wrong. But he couldn't figure out what, and wandering took his mind off it.
On this venture, he wandered close to North's office. North saw him and beckoned him inside.
"So? How are you settling in?"
"Alright, alright. Still adjustin'."
"Yes, this was a bit of a shock of a shock for you, no?"
"Dude, I didn't believe in any of this stuff. I mean, superpowers is one thing, but fairies and Guardians are another thing."
"Are they? Is it that hard to believe?"
Frozone didn't answer.
"Speaking of fairies, we may have finally settled on a surveillance system. Between my technology and Tooth's fairies, we'll be almost instantly alerted to the next kidnapping. We'll be on the scene only seconds after the crime."
He grinned almost maniacally, but something had clicked with Frozone. He knew what had been bothering him.
"They've been very quiet, whoever the kidnappers are. Do you think they know what we're doing?"
"Quite possibly," North said cheerfully. He offered a plate full of cookies to his guest. "Cookie?"
"You know the elves lick those, right?"
North stared at him for a moment, eyes wide in shock. "What?!"
He stormed out of the room, looking for elves to yell at in angry Russian. Frozone chuckled quietly to himself and walked down to the kitchen, suddenly hungry and wanting some real food.
To his surprise, he found Periwinkle mixing up something that looked delicious for herself and Jack. Sometimes he forgot that she wasn't a little kid, but a fully grown, mature adult fairy.
"Can I have some of that?" Frozone asked curiously.
"When it's done! This is Fairy Mary's special cake mix. Or something like it, at least. I found almost all of the ingredients here, and the others I'm improvising."
"Peri was just telling me about Pixie Hollow," Jack said.
"Don't let me stop you."
"Well, there are four main districts, each with a certain season's weather year round. I'm a winter fairy, so I lived in the Winter Woods. For a long time, winter fairies and warm weather fairies weren't allowed to mix and cross the borders. Then Tink, she's my twin sister. She lives in Tinker Hollow in the Spring Fields. Anyway, she crossed the border and that's how we met. Now everyone is allowed to cross the borders, with some certain precautions."
She sighed longingly as she pushed the cake into the magic oven.
"Elsa, do you ever miss Anna as much as I miss Tink?"
"Elsa?" Frozone asked. "She isn't here."
"What?" Peri turned around and scanned the kitchen. "She was here just a minute ago!"
"I'll go find her. Save us some of that cake," Frozone added.
He had his suspicions about her whereabouts, but had never followed her before, sensing that she needed some space. But there comes a point when too much space and time on your own isn't good for you, and Elsa had crossed that line many years ago. And now that Frozone recognized this, he realized it was time to push Elsa out of her comfort and safety zone.
He had often seen her leaving the workshop or after practices in the arena, usually covering her tracks with fresh snow. Elsa believed that no one knew where she went and couldn't follow her, but in reality, all of the other Just-Ice league members could tell her snow apart from the natural snow of the North Pole. She had left a perfect trail for Frozone to follow, so he felt pretty confident heading after her.
He was not prepared for the beautiful ice forest, or the castle.
"Welcome. I am Lancelot. How may I help you?"
Frozone started and looked over at the snow knight. He hadn't been aware that he could talk.
"Uh, I'm here to see Elsa."
"My queen does not wish to be disturbed. She needs space."
"Yeah, well she's had fifteen years too many. She needs someone who can help her learn to control her powers."
"Can you help her?"
Lancelot tilted his head curiously.
"I'm going to try."
Lancelot hesitated for another moment. "Follow me."
He turned around and opened the large door, revealing an ice skating rink courtyard.
It took several minutes before Frozone finally made it through the actual doors to the castle, and another ten minutes before he was able to leave the great hall. He and Honey had always talked about vacationing in Europe and touring old castles, but Frozone knew that nothing could compare with this. Lancelot was patient, allowing him to admire his mistress' creation.
At last, he found Elsa, sliding down a spiral banister. Lancelot looked at her for a moment, and though it was hard to tell what emotions ran through him underneath his visor, he seemed sad. Then he saluted to Frozone and returned to his post.
Elsa was shooting ice out of her hands to propel herself faster and faster, flinging her hands forward and creating a fresh pile of snow to land on at the last second. Without stopping for breath, she formed a snow column in the center of the staircase and rose up to the top, where she instantly launched herself onto the banister while simultaneously dissolving her elevator.
She was not doing so well.
Frozone noted that the walls around the stairs were deeply scratched from the powerful ice, and the fresh mound of snow seemed to be piling higher. He leaned against the wall and watched her for several minutes. The more she tried, the more tired and frustrated she became, and the rougher her ice grew. Finally, Frozone ran up and grabbed her arm before she could rise on her snow elevator.
"Whoa! Slow down there before you hurt yourself."
Elsa gasped slightly, but didn't seem to be surprised. Only desperate and worn.
"I can control it, I know I can!" she managed to gasp out in a frenzy.
She was nearly hysterical. Gently, Frozone steered her over to a bench and sat her down.
"Why am I having such a hard time with this?" she whispered. "Nobody else is."
"Well, lets see. Jack and Peri are magical beings so it comes naturally to them. They don't even have to think about it. Me, I'm just as human as you are. It came as quite a shock to my parents when they found out about my powers."
"So, you had to learn? How?"
"At first I was on my own. Five years living out in Hawaii trying to figure out what the heck was goin' on, then we relocated to Alaska so I could practice without getting hurt. But when I was ten we all realized I needed some help. So we moved to New York, to see the most experienced person with the supernatural that we know: my uncle Nick Fury."
"Does he have powers?"
"Nah, he's just the head of a massive secret agent company called SHIELD. You know, guns, aliens, monsters, and faking your own death type thing. They train superheroes to work for them, or sometimes the superheroes leave and become independent. I left as soon as I learned to control it."
"How long did it take?" Frozone could hear the desperation in her voice.
"Elsa, controlling superpowers is different for everyone. There's no fixed amount of time or program to help you learn."
"How long did it take you?" Elsa repeated.
The fear and desperation was gone, replaced by a fleeting moment where...there was no other word for it. Queenness. Although she probably would be shocked to know it, Elsa truly looked like a queen.
"Four years," Frozone said reluctantly. "And it took a whole lot of training and discipline. My uncle's a pretty strict guy. Sometimes a little too strict," he admitted. "I saw a lot of quitters, but I know for a fact you aren't one of them."
"How can you tell?" she asked sulkily. We've only known each other for a week."
"Because I spent four years watching people come and go. You've got the attitude of a winner. You're not going to give up."
Elsa was silent.
"Hey, it may take time, but you'll get there. How long have you been out here?"
"Since dawn," Elsa mumbled.
"Dawn?! Girl, it's mid afternoon! Tell me you at least ate breakfast." Elsa rubbed her neck sheepishly and Frozone sighed. "Clean up and we'll go. Peri's in the kitchen cooking some sort of fairy food. It looks decent."
Elsa looked around the castle, suddenly noticing the damage of her intense practice session. She shifted from one foot to the other, but didn't do anything.
"Whatcha waiting for? Snap your fingers, or whatever you do to make this stuff disappear."
Elsa bit her lip and closed her eyes in concentration. Very slowly, she raised her hands.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You're adding more snow!" Frozone exclaimed, slipping deeper as the snow seemed to grab at his ankles.
"Sorry," Elsa gasped.
She tried lowering her hands this time, but to no avail. A cloud of snow appeared out of thin air and fell on them.
"Sorry!" Elsa sputtered, rubbing the snow out of her eyes. "I don't actually know how to make my snow disappear."
Frozone sighed. "Then that's somethin' we'll need to work on. But not today, you've 'bout tuckered yourself out."
He flicked his wrist and the entire pile disappeared. Only then did he discover that he and Elsa were floating several inches off the floor. Elsa slid a few feet in surprise, but once she recovered, she laid her hand on the wall, and coated the spiral staircase in a fresh, glistening sheet of ice.
"Good job," Frozone noted, nodding approvingly. "You're getting there, you're getting there."
But Elsa was once again sad.
It's a roller coaster with this one, he thought.
"I don't know why I made it like this," Elsa said, gesturing vaguely to the castle around her. "It's way too big, and it just makes me homesick."
Her eyes fell on the ballroom and lingered there for a long moment. Behind her, Frozone saw the ice grow upwards out of the floor, almost as if it were liquid. It grew up around five feet, and shaped itself into a girlish figure in a ball gown. The statue looked so similar, Frozone thought it was Elsa. But there were small differences, though he couldn't place his finger on it.
"Your sister?" he asked, forgetting that she hadn't yet seen the statue.
"What?" Elsa turned, puzzled.
When she saw the figure, it seemed like all the air in the castle stopped moving. Elsa was hardly breathing. Frozone was about to panic and intervene when suddenly, miraculously, she smiled.
"Anna," she agreed. "I barely saw her for years, but I got to see her at the coronation the other night. She was beautiful."
"She looks a lot like you," Frozone said.
Before Elsa could respond, the big doors slammed open, cracking them slightly, and Jack flew in. Lancelot came running behind him, politely protesting. One glance was all it took to know that something big had happened.
"There's been another kidnapping," he said breathlessly, tossing them some food. "We're leaving, now."
Without asking, he picked Elsa up and flew off with her. Frozone activated his ice skates and quickly caught up.
"I can run incredibly fast," Elsa said crossly. "There's no need to throw me over your shoulder like a sack of flour every time we need to go somewhere!"
"Sorry," Jack said.
They were nearing the workshop again; Frozone could see Peri holding a snow globe in her hand.
"Incoming!" Jack yelled.
Peri threw the snow globe, and a swirling, circular portal appeared. She hesitated for a split second, then jumped inside and disappeared. Jack shot through a second later, and Frozone knew it was too late to stop. He crashed through and landed roughly on the ground. They had arrived a small, ordinary house that seemed vaguely familiar, but with absolutely nothing special about it. As soon as Jack registered where they were, though, he dropped Elsa in shock and flew forward, flying right through the wall, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"JAMIE!"