(ALERT: Short chapter! But it's supposed to be paced this way. Next one coming up.)

Jack had only been there once, so he wasn't sure if he was going the right way. He had to act fast. He couldn't risk wasting a second of time. He couldn't take a wrong turn. Every minute he was lost was a minute closer to Elsa's demise. That sounded pretty bad in his head.

"Where is it, where is it?" He spoke through clenched teeth, head jerking from side to side, surrounded by trees.

The snow made everything look the same! Why couldn't things be simple? If anyone could navigate through all this white, he could. He had to keep trying.

She must be terrified. How had they captured her so quickly? How had they even found her? He should have been there. He should have been there to do something. Anything. She shouldn't have had to face however many pumped-up goons all by herself. She'd been doing everything all by herself lately. He'd let her down again.

Well, now he would make it up to her.

Jack was sick of moving north. He should try another direction. It was always steep this way, the fjords slanting up and up and….North! Which way had it been from the bottom of the North Mountain? He located it by shooting himself into the branches of a tree, the small pointed sparkle of blue signaling Elsa's palace, still standing. His eyes scanned the rows and rows of frosted treetops and powdered clearings. Right there!

Snowflakes fluttered in his wake as the wind carried him toward the spot. Leaves sliced at his face past every bough, the ice in the air trying to get his attention. He didn't pay attention to it. His eyes were covered in a film showing only Elsa, stuck and shuddering in a dark room, chains dangling from her hands.

They weren't out. They were simply boulders again, round rocks sitting in a tight formation. The stone was cold beneath his bare feet, but he wasn't disturbed by it. This needed to work. They had to be able to help, in some way, any way.

"Hey!" he yelled, knocking his staff against the rock wall. "Hey, wake up!"

No one moved. He shouted and tapped them with his staff and nudged them with his foot, frantically trying to rouse them.

"Come on, I need your help!" Nothing. "The Queen needs your help! I'm her friend! She's locked in a dungeon and I…" He sighed, lowering his voice to a normal tone, rubbing his forehead with two fingers, and closing his eyes in defeat. "I don't know what else to do. " He hung his head. "Please, I have to fix this."

For a long moment, one in which he agonized over whether he should leave or not, everything was still and quiet. None of it changed. He turned to go, and heard a distinct, crushing, stone-against-stone sound.

Jack looked over his shoulder, eyes wary. A single troll, Bulda, had rolled out from her disguise.

"Now what makes you think it's your fault?" Her hands were on her hips, a stern look on her face. "It ain't all about you, Jack Frost."

Jack was delighted to see that someone had finally listened to him. In the back of his mind he wondered how she knew his name, but chalked it up to magical properties, thinking he had more pressing matters to focus on. He almost did a backflip, he was so relieved. But he composed himself, instead settling for a grateful smile at the motherly creature. It disappeared shortly after, though, when he considered her question.

"She wouldn't be there if it wasn't for me." Jack looked at the ground. "If I hadn't left…it…it's too hard to explain."

"Uh huh. Seems pretty easy to me." Bulda crossed her arms. "You wanna help her?"

"Yeah."

"You wanna make her life better?"

"Yes!"

"Then get back there and change things!" Bulda jumped and pushed his back with both hands, propelling him a few steps toward the wood. "Queen Elsa's your friend, you get her out. What do you need us for?"

Jack turned around, scraping his staff against the ground in restlessness. "Hey, cut it out! It's because—"

"You don't want us trolls gettin' all the credit, do you?"

"Listen—I need—"

She was still talking over him. "We can't do all the work! Your Elsa needs a helping hand, and it's gotta be one she trusts!"

"Yeah, I know, but—"

"Well, go on, honey, prisoners don't break themselves out!"

Jack couldn't take it anymore. "She can't see me!"

Bulda stopped pushing him. She stopped talking. She could hear the pain in his voice. All around them, the other trolls curled out of their hiding and stood staring at the wayward boy.

"Jack Frost."

Bulda's gaze fell. She turned slowly around to look as the other trolls made way for Grandpabbie.

Jack didn't stoop to Grandpabbie's level; he felt that'd be sort of disrespectful. But he did feel like bowing, for some reason. This guy was incredibly old. He watched Jack with sunken eyes filled with sympathy.

"You have felt invisible for many years. And you have watched over our Queen from the time she was most fragile, all the way to her present distress." Grandpabbie did not take Jack's hands the way he had Anna's. He simply looked up at him. "What was the source of Elsa's disbelief?"

"

Jack looked away again. He could never meet the gaze of anyone when guilt cramped him. It was one of the many things he disliked about himself. Not to be able to look someone in the eyes to prove how sorry he was could be seen as a form of cowardice. But he could see that Grandpabbie felt his remorse.

"The night her parents died. I guess." He sighed. "I…I thought I was…doesn't matter. I left. And when I came back…" Jack closed his eyes, reliving the moment she'd walked through him. Three years and he still felt like he couldn't breathe. He didn't finish his sentence.

Grandpabbie, unlike Bulda, didn't glance at the audience around them. He kept his soft eyes locked on Jack. "I have heard much about you, Jack Frost."

Jack felt a tingle run through him. "You have?" How much? From who? He knew he was getting excited, distracted. What did Grandpabbie know about his purpose? About him, about the reason he was always alone?

Grandpabbie seemed to read his mind. "I do not know why you were chosen to live this way. I do not know for sure what makes you special enough. But this I do know—with you, Elsa was strong. She has never been whole and she will not be whole without someone to love her. Anna has known this all her life. What about you?"

Jack leaned his head back in exasperation. He'd had this conversation mentally so many times now. She won't be whole alone. She's not herself when it's just herself. She needs you; you have to help her, why aren't you doing more? He found himself letting out a very bitter chortle, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"She doesn't need me." Jack laced his fingers through his bangs, frustrated. "Okay? She needs Anna. She needs her parents! I just…I owe her. And that's not why I—"

"Do you love her?"

The question almost knocked him over. The other trolls leaned forward, some of the younger ones bouncing on their toes. Bulda's expression was calm, almost knowing, but she stretched to see his face, same as the rest.

The answer scared him a bit, partly because he knew it and partly because he knew why it scared him. Jack felt defensiveness and denial winding up inside of him, reaching his mouth in a spiral tone.

"No!" He cut his eyes from troll to troll, a nervous chuckle riding on his words. "No, 'cuz that would be—"

"Do you know what love is, Jack?" Grandpabbie's voice was gentle.

Jack waited. He realized he wasn't sure.

"Love is selflessness." It was the perfect word. "Putting someone else before you is the very peak of love. It is not a feeling, it is an action. Several actions, every day, proof in the doing. Have you not done enough for Elsa to prove you love her?"

Jack didn't respond. He looked at Bulda, who was smiling at him, and back at Grandpabbie, whose face was still neutral. All at once his long-fought argument came barreling back to him.

"Yeah," Jack sneered, struggling to make sense, "but…I can't love Elsa! I wasn't there when I should've been."

"You don't think you deserveit, do you?" Bulda murmured, coming to stand slightly behind Grandpabbie.

"None of us deserves love," Grandpabbie told him.

"But one of the things we're all here for is to show it to other people," Bulda added. "Not even about deserving that. We just gotta." She grinned at Jack. "You been gettin' pretty good at that, don't you think, handsome?"

Jack smiled back, starting to understand. He didn't deserve Elsa's friendship or her affection. But he was supposed to show her his. It was the one thing she needed, now more than ever, and she hadn't been able to see it. Anna would do it better than he could—and she had been, for years, without even knowing she had competition. But she was in need of a friend herself at the moment, and a certain wonderful snowman was handling that particular job.

"Sounds like Elsa's gonna have to settle for me, then," Jack relented.

The trolls began to cheer. Bulda did a little backflip of her own.

Jack waved his hands and arms high, trying to get them to shut up for a second. "Okay, hey, hey, but what am I supposed to do when I get there?"

Grandpabbie closed his eyes for a moment. He breathed in. Several minutes went by, with the trolls shushing each other and watching him. Finally, their leader looked up, watching Jack.

"You know now that love is selflessness, Jack?"

Jack nodded.

"There is a way that Elsa will be able to see you again."

Jack's heartbeat sped up. Please. Please. It was all he could think. The thought of seeing her smile at him and laugh and feel her hugging him was intoxicating. He wanted that warmth back so badly. He felt a chortle pushing out of him, a quiet, shocked, elated one. He wondered why Grandpabbie wasn't smiling with him.

"But it is not my power that has laced your being in this way," Grandpabbie continued wearily. He passed a hand right through Jack, in a waft of blue, and Jack patted himself down in horror, thinking the trolls could no longer see him.

But Grandpabbie still gazed at the boy and addressed him as if nothing had happened.

"It is not my right to remove it," the old troll said apologetically. "Nor would I have the strength to. I can only guarantee you this once. And even then, it is limited, and has its price to pay."

Jack's brow furrowed. "Wait, what are you saying?"

Grandpabbie lowered his head. "In exchange for this one day, all the others must be given up."

Jack looked at the ground in front of him, mind far away. His breathing picked up with revelation. "What?"

"She will never see you again."

Bulda put her hands to her mouth. The other trolls gasped and whispered among themselves, looking sorrowful. Jack wondered how so many funny little creatures could feel such raw and kind emotions toward anyone, at any moment. He would wish later in life that his being was laced the way theirs was.

His heart wilted. "You mean…you mean this is the last time? I-If I…if I help Elsa, today, then no matter what, she won't—"

"No. I'm sorry." Grandpabbie fingered his fire crystals and didn't look away. "You see, Jack, on her own Elsa cannot break her chains. You may not have thought so, but there would come a day when you were exactly what she needed. That day has come."

Groaning, Jack put the heels of his hands to his eyes, as if rubbing sleep from them. This was so messed up. It wasn't fair. Who had Grandpabbie been listening to, that moment he'd closed his eyes and everything was slow? The Man in the Moon. Of course. Why couldn't he just leave Jack alone? The Moon had made this deal.

But wasn't it better than nothing?

"Without this gift of a moment," Grandpabbie went on, "Elsa may not have ever seen you. She has closed you off. Even for this day, whatever happens, it is still her choice whether she believes you are with her or not. I can only give her the courage. She will grant herself the ability. If she chooses." His dewy black eyes became deeper. "Just as it's your choice to help her today."

Jack didn't know what to say. He wanted to thank Grandpabbie, thank Bulda, but the heaviness in his chest made it hard to speak. The cloud in his mind was getting darker, about to burst with rain. What could he do?

But he knew that already.

Without a word, he flew from the clearing.

Love is selflessness.