A/N sorry for the late post my editor /snzy/ had some issues come up this week so he was behind, as well as the long chapter with no ladyboning/fluff in it. This chapter really sets up the rest of the story though and the Elsanna will be back next week! I am doing another story for Anna week, the 20th through the 27th, and going to try to have that be complete by next week so I can release one chapter every day or two till it's over (juggling this and work is going to blow lol)
Love you all! /TAO/
It was twilight outside, the light from the sun disappearing over the clustered buildings. Elsa surveys the area and her luck from the night before did not extend into tonight. The amount of people moving about the neighborhood was not as many as it normally was, but the ones there made her think twice about using her ice skates to speed up her commute.
I could totally make it anywhere in the city twice as fast if I could use the same moves as last night. Why was it so dead out last night and even now there are fewer people out than usual.
Pushing this thought from her mind, Elsa pulls her phone from her pocket and keys in a message to Kristoff, "So where are we meeting?" She starts to walk towards her normal hunting grounds.
This feels different for some reason... Like something changed from last night... After the fight between that doctor and I last night, everything just feels... Different?
She hesitantly looks around and tries to not catch eyes with anyone. Quickly remembering what Facilier said about his 'associates' the night before.
Strange?
She stares at the ground as she walks before giggling to herself, "yeah, cause I am anyone to talk about something being strange." She glances at her hands feeling her powers push against her skin, as if they were trying to escape.
...Wrong?
This thought stops her in her tracks, she feels like someone knocked the wind out of her. She knows what she is doing is just to survive, but there is more of a reason than that. She feels powerful in that moment that her victim is looking up at her. She feels in control when someone else has lost theirs. She feels more than human in that moment where she controls their fate. Her mind began to spiral down into this negativity, but the chime of her phone receiving a text message, interrupts her train of thought.
The text message reads, "let's meet back up at the park by 10th. It'll be safer if we stay on your side of town. I'll be waiting."
That park was not far from Elsa's house and was actually back towards the better part of town.
What is Kris playing at? He wants to meet, not only in the open, but where we are going to clearly be out-of-place?
Elsa hurries to try to not keep Kristoff waiting. She has more questions than answers at this point and is hoping her friend can help her with that. Quickening her pace, Elsa doubles back and gets to the park just as the sun disappears. She wanders to a quiet corner looking around for her friend. "Kris? Where are you?", she yells against the dark.
"Hey! Over here", a voice comes back. "took you long enough!" Kristoff walks out of the shadow's his clothes are different, instead of a black hoodie and the simple mask over his face she's used to. He is wearing a dirty black cloak with yellow outlines that drapes over most of his body. It was just the perfect fit for when he needs to hide something close to his person. The collar of the cloak and his hat covers enough of his face, but it was different from Elsa's clothes. The way she wears her hoodie by design is to keep everything but her eyes hidden for long periods of time. The way Kristoff looks in this outfit gives her a terrible feeling, like one way or another, if you see him, it will only be for a moment.
Elsa hesitantly moves closer to Kristoff, "what's with your clothes?". She pauses as he gives her the coldest stare she has ever seen.
"It's about time I put this back on... The War of the Prism looks to have finally started again." His face remaining serious as he takes a step towards her, "do you even know what it means?" He takes another step, "do you even know what you've just been dragged into by helping last night?" And a third step, "I said to stay out of it for a reason", he was now right in front of her. "DO YOU EVEN GET IT?", he yells.
Elsa, refusing to break eye contact, glares right back and asks, "then what was I supposed to do? Because you had that situation so well in hand!"
Kristoff's voice sounds calm, it sounds calculated, like this is normal to him. "I was simply talking to another associate about this whole situation, I didn't expect him to-"
"To fucking what?" She cuts him off. "To knock you on your ass so hard I had to come save you?"
"This is not the place to discuss this... This way", Kristoff motions for her to follow him.
Watching him turn and walk away, Elsa stays a step or two behind him, "where are we going?"
Her suspicion did not go unnoticed by Kristoff, "Don't worry it's not far, it's not safe to talk here. I think it would be best if we moved someplace a bit more private."
He walks to the edge of the park and stops at a bus stop, "see not far at all."
"A bus stop?", Elsa deadpans, "were going to talk on a bus, are you kidding me?"
Kristoff looks back at her over his shoulder, "honestly, a bus would be the best place. It has no hiding spots, and we can see everyone who gets on and off."
"Why are you acting so strangely", inquires Elsa
"We all have our secrets, this is one of mine", Kristoff explains. "It's been a long time since I've had to talk to anyone about this, it's not something anyone can get used to."
The bus arrives at that point and as Kristoff boards he pays both fares, "If you want to know more about what you may or may not have gotten yourself into, you'll get on the bus with me and have a chat."
Elsa thinks for a few seconds, turning over in her mind just how much she wants to know about this. "you getting on or what?", the bus driver asks.
Getting on the bus with what is a better question
As the bus driver starts to close the doors she skirts past them and glances down the row. Kristoff is the only person sitting in the bus and has chosen a seat as far away from the driver as possible. He is sitting in the back, his body language looks to have relaxed, but he still gives off an ominous vibe to Elsa. She walks down and joins him.
He is the first to speak, "last night, Facilier caught me off guard, that's all. If that was anyone else they would have killed you", his voice is still rather calm.
Elsa laughs at this, "anyone else huh? Who else can throw bolts of frost? Who else can fight with magic? Who-"
"Was completely unphased by you freezing the shit out of his hat last night", Kristoff stops her. "I want you to think, really think! Why do you think he wouldn't be surprised by that Elsa?"
She mills it over for a second then it finally comes to her, "he can use magic as well?"
"You're a rare breed Elsa, but you are not alone out there." Kristoff continues,
The realization hits her hard, "but you said associate, and that he would have killed me, not us. Are you working with him?"
The bus stops, Kristoff tenses up, then sighs and relaxes as the doors close with no one getting on, "No, Elsa, I used to work with the others, but when someone killed the old leader, this whole thing restarted. I tried to get out."
"What is all this...?"
"Well that's a very long story" He pulls his hat off, his eyes finally losing all the harshness they possessed. "The War of the Prism, is a fight like nothing you've ever experienced. Have you heard of the color wheel? You might have learned about it in school." Kristoff, seeing the look of confusion in Elsa's face, sighs and continues, "Each primary color, red, blue, and yellow, has a spot on the wheel." Kristoff glances out the window for a moment, then returns to his conversation. "Each secondary color, purple, green and orange, get spots between the two colors that make up that color."
Elsa follows along and stops him at this point, "that Facilier guy called himself the Purple Shadow last night, does that have to do with this?"
"Yes, this is the idea behind the war. Facilier is the color purple for this round."
Elsa raises a brow, "This round?"
"This war is thousands of years old", Kristoff clarifies, "this is not the first nor the last one that will happen."
Elsa presses a bit harder now, "so they called you Yellow Rogue, and he called me the White Queen... Whites not on the color wheel..."
"You caught that did you? There are two other colors in this, white and black. As for my name..." Kristoff looks around again, "when you get into this fight, there is only one way out... die."
Elsa looks at her friend in disbelief, "but, then how did the last war end?"
He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "The last Wars ended cause the remaining living color's pledged to work for the old leader, if you ever saw him", Kristoff closes his eyes and holds back a shudder. "The Black Nightmare was terrifying enough to make the strongest among us cower in fear."
"So you don't have to die or kill to end this thing?", Elsa inquires.
His eyes slowly opening, Kristoff thinks for just a moment and ignores her question, "You are now the potential White Queen after last night, colors tend to be people of power, be it magic or physical... I never knew exactly how emerging as a color worked, but I expect that after last night, you are on the radar. This world might just become your world."
Elsa remains silent for a second, "wait, how many people are already in this? I know the color purple is already taken by Facilier, and I am possibly white, are there any other colors active?"
"You still don't one hundred percent understand what I said before, the only way out is to die... I am back in it, you keep your color from the last fight", Kristoff's face starts to grow cold and angry. "Purple, White, and Yellow are the three you know about. There are also Blue and Green active from the last games. As you said, Facilier, you, and I are the first three. Blue's identity was on a need to know basis and, as just an assassin, I didn't need to know"
Still trying to take all this information in, Elsa's head swarms with even more questions that seem to just fly out of her mouth, "Why do you want out? Can you even get out? What have I done... Will we have to fight each other eventually? Then who is Green? Why does he-"
"She", Kristoff cuts her off. Her barrage of questions now interrupted by Kristoff, he raises his hands, trying to slow her down, "Lets start with the most important. Green is the biggest threat to everyone now... Her name is Mal. She is a very powerful druid, as well as an adept apothecary. If you give her the opening, she will end your life, just like she did to the last color black. She poisoned him. He let his guard down for just a moment, he didn't notice till it was too late."
"What the fuck is the point of all this?", Elsa blurts out, "all this sounds like is a lot of people getting killed for no reason. And you... You allied with these people..." Elsa's mind takes off into terrible places, "why would you help them? Kill... for them?"
"Because not all of us have magic, and keep your voice down", Kristoff counters very bluntly. "Not everyone gets lucky and is born with the ability to defend themselves, I was just a dopey guy before this became what I call life. I worked at a zoo, I took care of elephants, lions, and reindeer, and then... Well, let's not go into my life right now." Kristoff puts a hand on Elsa's shoulder, "I want you to know, in the next few days, someones going to approach you, try to recruit you for their agenda. That is when you are going to have to make your choice, between the life you know, and the life I know you want."
"What does that even mean! Just stop being so cryptic.", Elsa pleads, clearly a bit shaken up about this.
Kristoff turns away from her, "there is no one who is born only good or only bad, all of us are just the result of the decisions we make along the way. Mal will probably be the one to come see you, since Facilier and you already have history. They will offer you a job, it will pay amazingly, give you authority over majority of the city, and let you have your hand in everything, from each petty theft to shipments of drugs coming in." His voice trails off like this is the last thing he's going to say. "The last leader turned the power he gained from winning into a criminal syndicate that ran this city, that's why it went to shit so fast and on such a grand scale.", His began emitting an aura of uneasiness, as the realization set in that this might be the last time he would see Elsa as a friend. "I won't blame you for it, hell, for a long time, I took the money. I fought innocent people for jaded people, I've killed for stupid reasons all for the sake of a big pay check. Deep down, I'm not sure who I am anymore, part of me wants to save this city, but are my hands too bloody...? I'm tired Elsa, I want a city people are proud of, and by staying with Mal, this city is only going to rot more."
The mood was heavy, Elsa was trying to think of something to say but she could not form the words.
I want to help make this place better... but if I take this job I might be able to afford to get out at some point, start over... Hide. Get Anna and me away from this hell hole of a city and go far far away.
The bus stops again, "this is where I am getting off, if you want to join me let me know after they contact you." He stands and walks a few steps away, "I need you to see both sides, hear both offers. If you choose to join me, I want you to know exactly what you are turning down by doing so." He turns swiftly gets off the bus and before the doors shut he is already gone.