Author's Note: Wow, this one flew out fast! I think this is one of the longest chapters of the story so far! I hope you enjoy!
And, as a legal side note, I do not in any way own anything Frozen. Disney does. I am just the happy little owner of this story.
Happy reading!
The ministers continued clapping for what seemed like a very long time. Elsa smiled at their greeting. These people have never met us, but they are so supportive of us nevertheless. Why are we so special? After a few seconds, she waved her hands in the universal 'settle down' gesture. "Thank you very much, everyone."
"Please, Your Majesty, take a seat," the Minister of Finance said. (She could tell because of the name and title card placed in front of him on the table. They all had them.) He gestured her towards one of the empty chairs at the head of the table, which had a card that read 'Prime Minister' in front of it.
"Thank you," she replied. "Out of curiosity, why are these chairs empty?" she then asked the assembled group.
The Minister of Foreign Trade answered. "That seat is the Prime Minister's, and the other seat is the Minister of State's, but right now the Prime Minister and the Minister of State are on an official visit to Japan. They are scheduled to return in a few days, but in light of these circumstances they might be back much sooner." He rightfully looked at her as if she were the reason.
"Okay." She walked towards the chair and sat down. Anna took the Minister of State's chair to her immediate right. Elsa leaned back in the leather executive chair, while Anna sat forward and faced the assembled ministers. Elsa smiled.
She remembered that when both she and Anna were participating in negotiations, this was how they usually played their cards. Elsa would sit back and look generally disinterested, while Anna would act out of character - that is, she would act entirely businesslike. This generally served to throw off the other side during the tea and coffee breaks, where most of the diplomatic work got done. They would come over to discuss some finer point of the negotiations with Elsa, the head of the negotiating delegation, and expect to talk with a lazy, disinterested queen who relied on her powers to govern and really didn't care about anything. This then gave Elsa the advantage of having her opponents underestimate her, and in international diplomacy, that slight advantage was all she needed. Plus, if she really needed to shake things up, she could turn into a regal queen, seemingly at a flip of a switch, just to throw them off even more.
Once, she remembered with a smile, she had been in a negotiation for a trade agreement with some mainland European country – she didn't remember which one – whose chief diplomat was extraordinarily arrogant. He had been extolling the virtues of his country – how powerful they were, how famous their stage productions were, and so on – until she had heard enough. She interrupted him and stated quite clearly, "You know what, I am thirsty. Do you gentlemen want some water?" They all had looked at her, nodded yes, and then had gone back to reading their notes. With a twirl of her fingers, she had created an ice glass in front of each of the negotiators and then created a snow storm over each of cups. As soon as the snow had hit the glass, she had melted it, so that after ten or fifteen seconds, the glasses were full of crystal clear water. She had then said, "Great, now that this issue is solved, Mr. Ambassador, please continue."
That trade agreement had gone extraordinarily well for Arendelle.
And so it was that even now, over two hundred years into the future, they were still working under the same playbook that they had used in their earlier negotiations. However, even after all the time that Elsa and Anna had been working together, it still surprised her even now that Anna could be so businesslike when she wanted to. Just a little while ago she had been on a seemingly constant sugar rush, to the extent that people never really took her seriously. This change in her sister was, for Elsa, quite something.
She was interrupted from her musings by the Minister of Culture sitting forward in his chair. "Queen Elsa, I am quite amazed that you have finally returned to Arendelle. Could you please tell all of us how you got here?"
Elsa replied to him, "How much of the story do you know?"
Someone at the other end of the table, it was impossible to read the card in front of them that said who they were, explained from memory, "We know that shortly before your disappearance, a crystal was brought to the Princess by Regent Kristoff, who did not know of the crystal's secret, as supposedly a gift from a mysterious group known as the Trolls, whoever they were. Anna went into your office, and neither of you have been seen until now. There was an investigation into whether the Regent was a knowing accomplice in your disappearance or not, but he was eventually found to be innocent."
Anna perked up at the mention of Kristoff. "Wait, you investigated Kristoff?"
The man nodded. "Yes, under the advice of General Leif Pederson, a secret investigation was started into the Regent. It ultimately did not find anything."
Elsa groaned. Pederson was a worthless officer who was only out for himself. As commander of the Army, put there by her father, he was the ultimate example of the saying 'Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.' He probably had just hoped that the investigation would find something that would have allowed him to take the Regency himself. She knew that she would have to replace him at some point.
Elsa decided to retake the conversation. After taking a deep breath, she began: "What you already know is a pretty good start. Once Anna entered the room, we talked for a few moments, and then she showed me the crystal. We were still standing a small distance apart, so she tossed it over to me. In midflight, it brightly flashed, and we ended up in what we found to be Epcot in Walt Disney World."
"Wait, Epcot?"
"Yes, we appeared in the theatre at the American pavilion, surprisingly enough. We appeared on the floor in the handicap section at the rear of the theatre. Luckily, there was no one else back there, and we were able to leave the room normally with the rest of the crowd. Once out, we then began walking around Epcot, and evidently at some point we were spotted by the American National Security Agency. The agent that interrogated me later explained to me that they somehow knew we were coming, something about newtreenos or something…"
"Neutrinos," the Minister of Science helpfully corrected.
"Yes, well, they found us and captured us. We were knocked unconscious in the back of the…what do you call it… a…horseless carriage…"
"Car?"
"Yeah, that's it. They took us somewhere else, where I woke up in a separate room from Anna, and was questioned by a NSA agent named Stevens. He questioned me for a while about some really crazy things, like whether or not we were Russian or Chinese spies. I denied it and eventually, after I was really starting to get annoyed with him, I played the 'I'm Queen' card. He then left me alone. A few minutes later, I had a chance to escape, and both Anna and I took it."
"Princess Anna," one minister asked, "what happened to you during your captivity?"
"Well, I was still unconscious when Elsa broke into my room with her ice swords. She then hit me with a blizzard and froze the floor beneath me." She chuckled. "I woke up very quickly after that." There was a chorus of quiet laughter from around the table.
"How did you get away from the NSA?" the Minister of Intelligence wondered.
"I had balls." Jaws dropped around the table. Elsa quickly backtracked. "To be more specific, I hit them with large ice balls that I had created. They were knocked unconscious immediately."
"What did you do then?"
"We took their wallets, got out of the building, bought some normal clothes with the money we had taken from the agents, and went to the airport in a…taxi? Yes, that's it. Once we were there, we boarded the plane and flew to Arendelle. As soon as we landed in Arendelle, we took another taxi to the Castle and, well, you know the rest."
All of the heads nodded. Suddenly, the main doors burst open, and an older gentlemen walked in, followed by three soldiers. One of the soldiers was carrying a wooden box that was handcuffed to his wrist. The assembled ministers looked only curious.
The older gentleman turned to the two sisters. "Queen Elsa? Princess Anna?" They both nodded. "Ma'am, my name is Harold Rodgers, Arendelle Defense Minister. Do you remember the code that was given to you for your use in the event that you were kidnapped?"
Elsa held her hand up. "Wait, just to make sure I am thinking of the right one, this is the code I was to use to verify my identity in a letter if I were kidnapped?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. It is not widely known information at all, actually, the code itself is quite secret, and is an excellent way to authenticate you and ensure that you are not an imposter."
"Okay, makes sense," Elsa replied. She then quickly rattled off, "My code is W-Q-E-nine-B-N-N-four-V-P-A-two-C-W-Q."
"And you, Your Highness?"
Anna thought for a second. "My code is… let me think about this…I-P-X-three-… L-F-V-eight-R-… N-E-one-K-R-Z?" she answered uncertainly.
The Minister smiled. "Those are the correct codes. Welcome back to Arendelle." During the ensuing round of applause from around the conference table, he motioned for the soldier carrying the box to place it on the table in front of the Queen and Princess. Once there, another soldier unlocked the handcuffs securing the box to the man's wrist. In an impressive show of governmental compartmentalization, the third soldier took the second soldier's place and quickly unlocked the box itself. As the Queen's eyebrows shot up at the incredible redundancy, the three soldiers quickly stepped away from the queen, rigidly at attention, as she reached forward to open it.
She lifted the lid.
Inside was the crystal.
Anna's fists shot up into the air, and she let out a triumphant, "YES!"
Elsa, while smiling, was much more apprehensive of it. "Well, it is good to know that it has not been lost." She paused for a moment before looking up into the Defense Minister's eyes. "Well, you've had it for two hundred years. Please tell us you know how it works."
He shook his head. "My apologies, ma'am, but we don't. It has always been dormant, and we never could figure out even a sliver of its mystery."
Elsa shook her head, sighed, and placed her forehead in her open hand. "Did you ever happen to check with those who gave it to us?"
The Minister laughed. "The only story surrounding who gave it to the Regent is a legend about trolls. Who believes that anyway?" He continued chuckling.
Elsa couldn't stop the smirk that came to her face as her eyebrows shot up. The Minister of Defense stopped laughing.
A few hours later, Anna, Elsa, 3 Arendellian Air Force Recon troops, 2 biologists, and the aircraft's normal crew were riding aboard a Black Hawk flying over the treetops, watching as the sun began falling in the West. They were first heading to the North Mountain, as that was the beginning of the only way Anna knew to get to the trolls' clearing. It rose up in front of the chopper like a lighthouse on a calm sea, beckoning them forward.
Elsa and Anna looked forward with everyone else, but unlike the rest of the passengers and crew, they felt a twinge of sadness. It was only them who knew what once stood there. "Why do you think the castle's gone?" Anna asked her sister in as close to a whisper as you could get in a helicopter.
Elsa thought for a second and replied sadly, "I wasn't here to keep it frozen."
Anna sat back in her seat, her face drooping in sorrow, when she suddenly shot forward against her seat's five-point harness to talk to the pilot. "Colonel! Colonel! Could you please set down, or alight, or…whatever, on that plateau right there, by the top of the mountain?" The pilot nodded, and she sat back again and quietly giggled to herself in excitement.
Elsa was worried now. "Anna, what did you just do?"
"Oh, cheer up, Elsa," she replied in her normal, crazy tone of voice. "You're going to love my idea."
Elsa rolled her eyes, but Anna said no more on the subject, and just continued waggling her eyebrows at her sister. After ten seconds of watching her eyebrows bounce more than Olaf did when he was walking, Elsa accepted her fate and sat back in her seat.
Seconds later, the Black Hawk came to a hover above the plateau on the North Mountain. Above them, the site where the castle once stood loomed over the sisters, depressing one with its fall from its former glory, while exciting the other with the exciting possibilities of what would happen in the next few minutes. Slowly but surely, the helicopter descended, the snow below it blasting away from the ground beneath as the aircraft touched town, the concussive beating of chopper's engine quickly shutting off.
The cabin crew chief was the first out, sliding the door back and securing it open for the queen and princess, all the while keeping his head away from the still rotating blades overhead. Anna and Elsa quickly followed, leading the rest of the passengers onto the mountain. Elsa walked a few paces away from the chopper, then turned towards Anna. "Okay, Anna: what now?"
Anna decided to say nothing, and just started making exaggerated motions and 'whoosh' noises as if she were Elsa shooting ice and snow around her.
Elsa's jaw dropped, and squeaked out, "Oh, no, you want me to rebuild the castle?!"
"Yes!" Anna squealed out with excitement. "I've never actually heard you sing it, but I've heard about it! Pretty please?" Anna batted her eyelashes at her.
"So you've never heard the song, huh?" the pilot asked. Anna nodded. "Well, I don't mean to be insubordinate, Your Majesty, but my co-pilot Pete here has played some fun games with our public address system's wiring so that he can plug his iPod in and listen to his music when he's working on the aircraft in the hangar. There's no reason he can't plug it in now."
Pete vigorously nodded, hopefully. "Yeah, Your Majesty. I even have the karaoke version for you."
Elsa had, for once, been slow on the uptake. Her jaw dropped. "Karaoke? You want me to sing as well?"
"YES!" everyone exclaimed.
Elsa shook her head and sighed, resigning herself to her immediate fate. She hated performing in front of strangers. "Fine, put the music on." Pete already had it set up, so all he had to do was push play.
The sounds of a piano echoed across the mountainside as Elsa walked across the new-fallen February snow partway down the mountain to where she had stood over two centuries before. As an afterthought, she created a glove over her right hand. As she strode towards that spot, Elsa began thinking of what she and Anna had been through together over the last few days. They had travelled through the ages and found their way back home in a strange and different land and a new and fantastic time. But, she recognized that she never could be at home in this Arendelle. She had barely recognized her beloved country during the taxi ride that morning, and she was already wishing to go back to the calm that Arendelle had in abundance two hundred years ago.
I want to go home, she admitted to herself.
She then realized that she was going to have to start singing. Taking a deep breath, she shut everyone watching her out of her mind and turned around.
The assorted passengers from the Black Hawk looked on in awe as Elsa began to sing. The snow glows white on the mountain tonight…
Elsa walked up through the dusk towards the peak of the mountain, singing the same words that she had belted out over two hundred years ago, the melody lancing across the cold air just as they had before. As she continued through the song, she began sinking into it, feeling just like she had on that cold summer morning as she had welcomed the dawn to her country. Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know,
Her ice glove, created expressly for this one purpose moments before, shot straight up into the air above her. Well, now they know!
Let it go! Ice and snow leapt into the air from her fingers, twisting and curling into various shapes in midair. Let it go! Can't hold it back anymore! A swirl of snow was dragged from the mountaintop and twirled itself into a snowman. A pair of wrenches in the Black Hawk cut through the brisk air and slammed into the snowman in the place of arms. Elsa didn't even stop to watch, as she had already resumed her march upwards.
Let it go! Let it go! Turn away and slam the door! I don't care – Ice shot out to her right across the frozen landscape – what they're going to say! – Her ice crystals soared at the Black Hawk.
"Oh, crud," the chopper crew chief muttered under his breath milliseconds before they were clobbered with the so-called 'Frozen Fractals All Around'. "Brrr, that's cold!"
Elsa, once more, was back in her own world. Let the storm rage on! Her hands went to the icy clasp holding the ice cape on her shoulders. The cold never bothered me, anyway.
She released the cape and it flew some fifty feet behind her, where it dissolved and transformed into thousands upon thousands of tiny snowflakes, gliding along with the wind.
One of the scientists turned to his colleague and asked, "Do you think her ice capes actually keep her warm?" The other scientist looked at him and slowly shook his head back and forth. "It's symbolic, you idiot, not to mention extraordinarily classy." The first scientist shut up, to the happiness of his colleague.
Elsa then turned around and looked back at Arendelle, the lights of the sprawling city slowly igniting the mountain range with a yellow glow. It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small, and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all! Turning her back on her city, she charged up the mountain toward the huge canyon, quickly leaving the Black Hawk behind in the fading sunlight.
She reached the edge of the canyon, now just barely wider than it had been the first time. It's time to see what I can do; - Ice shot out towards the canyon, quickly transforming into the beginnings of a new, unrefined staircase whose predecessor had so long ago melted away and fell into the abyss - to test the limits and break through! No right, no wrong, no rules for me: - her foot touched the first step of the new staircase, and, with a huge smile, she sang out – I'm free!
She charged up the staircase and defied the laws of physics as she continued - Let it go! Let it go! I am one with the wind and sky! Let it go! Let it go! She arrived at the top of the now gleaming staircase and walked towards the center of the plateau at the peak of the mountain, while singing You'll never see me cry!
She arrived at the spot where she had once raised her new castle. Looking around, it was just like she remembered. Here I stand, and here I'll stay! Let the storm rage on! She lifted her arms, and jaws dropped below her.
"There is no way," someone breathed.
"Is she really doing this?" another asked no one in particular.
The pilot pinched his ear, since his arm was covered by his jacket and, therefore, unreachable.
Anna simply looked on in amazement and, for once, in silence.
Above them, Elsa was twirling around, creating the various supports, floors, walls, ceilings, and everything else in the castle that had to be created, the raw ideas and memories in her mind blending with all she had learned from the various architecture books in the castle library to become reality. In just ten seconds, the castle had risen 300 feet and was nearly as strong as a concrete bunker. Now, Elsa knew she could focus on the details.
She began looking around her castle's inner sanctum, still creating. My power flurries through the air into the ground!
Below by the Black Hawk, the passengers looked up as her silhouette, highlighted by the setting sun, shot around the room. My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals, all around! They looked up and watched as the castle reached its peak, the ice rushing upward as if gravity had reversed and it were a waterfall. Somehow, the people below were still able to hear her voice as she continued. And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast!
Suddenly, a concussive beat thumped out from the helicopter. I'm never going back; the past is in the past! Everyone below froze at that, mild terror registering momentarily in their minds.
Let it go! Let it go! Elsa's arms swept up her body as she recreated her traditional ice dress. And I'll rise like the break of dawn! Let it go! Let it go! That perfect girl is gone! She charged out onto the ice balcony, which just seconds before had been empty space. Here I stand in the light of day! Let the storm rage ON! Her voice echoed against the mountains.
The cold never bothered me anyway.
She turned to go back into the castle and slammed the door behind her. The ice resounded like thunder throughout the cold mountains.
Everyone was quiet for a moment. Finally, the pilot broke the silence. "Well, I've always known that the cold never bothered her, but judging from the volume of her voice up here, apparently oxygen deprivation doesn't, either," he stated before he took a breath from the emergency oxygen supply onboard the chopper. "Someone did get that on video, right?"
"Yep, and I have really good reception up here," one of the scientists replied from behind his iPad. "Don't worry, I'm uploading it to YouTube right now."
The pilot nodded as they all looked up at the blue ice castle, returned from centuries past, the Black Hawk resting on the mountain beneath it.
And as the sun dipped back below the horizon, night returned to Arendelle.
Minutes later, after they had all taken a brief Elsa-led guided tour of the castle, they loaded back into the helicopter and took off. They circled the castle once, and then flew off on the heading Anna said led the troll's clearing.
"Elsa, that was…beautiful! You did that when you ran off?" Anna exclaimed.
"Yeah, except it was different for me then," she replied, a broad smile on her face. I really needed that, she thought. I haven't noticed how much my ice relaxes me.
"How so?" Anna asked.
Elsa looked out the window as it fell away behind them, her smile dimming for a split second. "I really was in a kingdom of isolation. I was alone, and never did expect to see anyone ever again, including you. Plus, as just another difference, I did want to leave the past in the past then. Not so much right now, for obvious reasons."
"Yeah," Anna said. "We did get just a tiny bit worried out there when you said that."
Elsa chuckled. "Don't worry about it."
As they all breathed a sigh of relief, the helicopter flew onwards through the darkness.
Pabbie was having a bad day. Well, actually, he realized, all of my days are bad. Huh. One of the disadvantages of being 1027 years old.
He walked around, greeting his various family members.
"Robert, good to see your crack has healed.
"Maddie, how's the new mud hut development going? Do you need more workers to help you build?
"Kevin, what are you thinking, man?
"Julia, Mitch, how are the newlyweds doing today?"
Gradually, he began to become aware of a thumping from behind him. He turned around. "Silas, stop that, oh, what do you call it, beat boxing, or whatever. You know how it drives the rest of us insane." But when he finally spotted Silas, he was silent, while the thumping continued. But if it wasn't Silas, what was it that he was hearing?
Then it occurred to him. Oh, of all things in sedimentary…
"PLAY ROCK!" All around him, trolls began hitting the ground, and looked for all the world as if they were rocks. Once he was satisfied that all were camouflaged, he himself rolled and put his face in the dirt and held still.
What he then couldn't see, then, was a military helicopter come into a hover over the clearing, its searchlight bouncing from spot to spot around the trolls. He also couldn't see the figure jump out of that same helicopter fifty feet off of the ground, while multiple other silhouettes dropped out behind it on ropes. Finally, he couldn't see the figure shoot hurricane-force winds and snow from her hands as she slowed her descent to the degree that she landed on the ground as if she had just stepped off of the final step in a flight of stairs.
All he could do is listen, and after a wait of a few seconds, he soon heard, "Now, Grand Pabbie, is this a way to treat the sister of your soon-to-be adoptive granddaughter-in-law?"
What?! He knew that voice! Who was it, who was it, who was it…
"Oh, and I want to tell you that you were indeed right. My power has continued to grow, and there is undeniably beauty in it."
Volcanoes, creator of stones! It's Queen Elsa!
He rolled up and saw Elsa and Anna standing a few feet away from him. "Your Majesty! This is…quite unexpected! It has been a long time since you were last here!"
Elsa's eyes saddened. "I remember. We all regret things about that night, don't we?" Elsa slowly began smiling. "At least one good thing came out of that night, though. You saved Anna."
"It was my honor, Your Majesty. Rest assured that you have many friends out here. However, I doubt that your reason for coming here tonight after all these years was for conversation."
"Believe it or not, it actually was. Do you remember the crystal that was given to Kristoff on the day that Anna and I disappeared? The Time Crystal?"
The old troll nodded his head solemnly. "Yes, I remember that wretched crystal. I have thought about it nearly every day for the last two hundred years. I assume that you would like to learn more about its workings?"
Elsa smiled. "That would be quite kind of you."
He sighed. "Very well. Your crystal is known as a stein av elven tiden, or the Rock of the River of Time. This type of crystal allows its holder to travel throughout time and space, but with some rules. First, the holder must be in possession of it. This is harder than it seems, since the crystal doesn't jump with you. You must find it and be in possession of it in the time you have arrived in before you can return, and you must use the same crystal, or else nothing would happen. If you attempt to use another crystal, it will not do anything. Also, the crystal cannot have been used by someone else. For instance, if I were to take the crystal that you came in on, it would not work for me. It would be as useless to me as a meaningless piece of unpolished quartz….zzzzzzzz
Pabbie began falling asleep where he stood, before slapping himself on the face and continuing. "OW! What was I thinking? Oh, yes, that's right. Also, when jumping, you must jump from the same location on Earth. The movement of the heavens matter not, but the location on our world matters greatly. In fact, it is absolutely imperative. If you were to jump from anywhere else other than from where you came in, you would be vaporized upon arrival.
"Third, when jumping, you must have a clear idea of where, when, and with whom you want to go. If you do not know these things, the magic will not work.
"And finally, in order to jump, you must toss the crystal into the air.
"Any questions?"
Elsa was deep in thought. What was I thinking when we jumped? What was it…what was it…what was it…Ah! Yes! I was thinking of the new defense treaty that would last for two hundred years, 1814, 2014, yes, of course! Where, where, where was I thinking of…America! That's right! I had just learned of America sending an ambassador to Arendelle. So, I was thinking of America, but what brought me to Epcot? Hmmm…I was thinking of walking around the town…that must be it. At least, I can't think of anything else I was thinking of. "Well, in fact, that pretty much answered all of my questions, but I'm sure that these scientists have questions to ask. I'll let them continue."
He bowed. "As you wish, Your Majesty."
Elsa walked off as she thought about what they probably had to do in order to get back to 1814. We will have to get back to that theatre in Florida, she knew. How, that is something else entirely. Will we have to sneak in? Invade? Do something completely different? It was enough to give her a migraine.
Suddenly, she was interrupted from her thoughts by a weak voice down by her ankle. "Your Majesty?"
She smiled and squatted down. "Yes, what is it?" she asked the small, middle-aged troll.
"My name is Kevin, and I want to apologize. I never should have given you that crystal. If I hadn't, then maybe…"
She cut him off. "No. Don't you dare even think that way!" She gave him a reassuring smile. "Besides, Anna and I are going to be able to go back, right?"
"Right…" the troll admitted warily.
"So everything will be okay. Trust me." She smiled at him one more time. "Everything will be just fine."
The troll was actually tearing up and began sobbing. "I'm s-so s-s-sorry! If-if I had-hadn't given Kris-Kristoff that stup-p-pid thing, none of this would h-have happened."
"It's okay, it's okay. There, there, it's all right." she comforted him, while looking up at Anna, who was standing away from the main body of trolls. She gave Anna a look of pure terror. 'What am I supposed to do?' her expression seemed to ask.
Anna just shrugged. Lots of help you are, Elsa grumbled to herself. "Kevin, we forgive you. You didn't mean any harm."
He sniffled again. "Th-Thank you, Your Majesty."
Elsa smiled. That wasn't too hard. She looked over at Anna triumphantly. Anna stuck her tongue out at her before smiling. Elsa shook her head as she walked over to speak with Anna.
"Elsa, despite what people may say about you, you are a warm person at heart."
Elsa's smile grew even wider. "Thank you. You know, that really means a lot to me. Oh, did you hear Grand Pabbie?"
"Well, yeah, but I'm not you. I didn't spend fourteen years of my life memorizing the castle library, so I have no idea whatsoever of what he was talking about."
Elsa chuckled. "Yeah, I did do that, didn't I? Well, you've got to admit, it have served us well in the past few days."
Anna nodded. "Absolutely!" She paused for a moment. "Here I go again, getting us off topic once more. What did he say?"
"He says that we need to take the crystal back to where we jumped in. Once there, we need to visualize when, where, and with whom we want to go. Then, we will be able to return."
"We have to go back? To Florida? Ohhhhh, no. What are we going to do?" Anna slapped her forehead. "They want us dead over there! We have to go back?"
Elsa nodded and grimaced. "True. Well, we will just have to make a plan." The grimace changed into a mischievous grin. "We do have something now that could help us with getting to Epcot that we didn't have back in the 1800's."
Anna was almost afraid to ask. "What?"
"Our very own Military Command Center."
Anna's jaw nearly hit the troll standing by her feet. "We do? How do you know that?"
"I overheard Colonel DeBoer talking to it on his, oh, what do they call them, radios? Yeah, that's it. He was talking to it on a radio before we retook the castle. Now, I figure, if you can talk to it, it has to exist, right?"
Anna shrugged. "I guess so."
Elsa began nodding. "Yes. We'll be able to do this."
Anna thought for a moment before asking, "What does one do with a military command center?"
Twenty minutes later, after the scientists had asked Grand Pabbie all sorts of questions about the crystal, it was time to go. Anna and Elsa extricated themselves from the trolls and walked over to the old and now tired troll to say their goodbyes.
"Thank you so much for all of your help, Pabbie. We couldn't even think of doing this without you."
"You don't give yourself enough credit, Your Majesty."
"Yes, well, thanks anyway."
"It was really no problem, but you're welcome."
Anna was the next to speak. "See you in a few days, Pabbie!"
"In that case, Your Highness, I have already seen you." The sisters were taken aback by that strange turn of phrase. "Blessings on your journey." With that said, he rolled off to take a nap.
Minutes later, the Black Hawk returned to the air above the clearing, and while its passengers were hoisted aboard, it hovered unmoving over the clearing. Once everyone was aboard, its nose pitched down, the pilot pulled up on the collective, and the helicopter shot up and off for Arendelle.
On the outskirts of Arendelle, between the downtown section and the North Mountain, Agents Left and Right stood, watching the sky.
In their hands, they each held a Stinger missile.
Five miles out from Arendelle, the pilot's demeanor changed abruptly. His now monotonous voice came over the cabin communications system. "Possible radar lock! Buckle up back there, we're in for a memorable ride." The soldiers and crew chief tightened their harnesses, followed closely by the scientists and royals.
Looking around, the crew chief quickly checked everyone's restraints. Quickly satisfied, he barked into his headset, "Ready for maneuvering."
A clipped "Roger," was all that was heard from the colonel before the helicopter banked over hard. Looking out the window in the left-side door, Elsa and Anna could see dark trees, lit only by the city lights ahead, zipping past at speeds nearly inconceivable for the two visitors from the past. Then, as quickly as the helicopter had banked left, it quickly rolled the other way to bank back around to the right, the passengers slamming into their seatbelts. Elsa was dimly aware of Anna screaming beside her. A moment later, they saw a pair of smoke trails lance into the sky towards the helicopter, missing by a slim margin. The back-and-forth maneuvering continued for the rest of the flight until they were over the helipad at the building known as the Hex, the nerve center of the Arendellian military's considerable might.
The defense minister had earlier left his office at the Federal Building and had switched over to his war-time office at the Hex. He was waiting by the helipad for the royals. It was four o'clock in the morning. As soon as the Black Hawk's gear had touched down and the blades had been feathered, the minister rushed with his head low to the passenger door and pulled it open. "FOLLOW ME, YOUR MAJESTY!" he shouted over the roar of the engine. He then turned around and dashed with his head down back towards the edge of the helipad, the sisters following close behind.
As they reached the edge of the pad, the realized that there were more soldiers spread out around the pad. They were dressed in combat fatigues and had their rifles held snugly to their shoulders, the guns swiveling from side to side as their operators watched the surrounding area for any threat. The minister answered the unspoken question. "They are members of our Blizzard Force, the Arendellian elite special operations corps."
"And why are they here?" Elsa asked.
"I assigned them to base security here, and for good reason. Your Majesty, based on the actions taken against you at the castle and the fact that the National Security Agency has invaded our capital and sovereign territory, the Ministry of Defense has concluded that the Kingdom of Arendelle is now facing an imminent threat of war against the United States of America. As some measure of confirmation, on the way here you two were almost killed by a pair of air-to-air missiles. In order to try and avoid war, our ambassador in Washington is currently on his way to the White House to speak with their President. I have also been informed that a senior American intelligence official was seen by their press entering the West Wing of the White House by their press just over an hour ago. Intelligence deems it likely that the official will be part of the meeting with our ambassador."
"That's great, but I thought we were allied with the United States!" Elsa protested.
"Your Majesty, as a great American writer once wrote, 'Alliances do not exist for reasons of love, but rather because of mutual interests.' The intelligence reports coming in right now from our undercover operatives in the American intelligence community suggest that those mutual interests may have just changed." He paused for a moment before continuing, "Your Majesty, under Arendellian Law, you regained your duties as monarch during the cabinet meeting this afternoon. It is my duty to inform you, therefore, that as our Commander-in-Chief, the combined might of our military forces stand ready and willing under your command."
Elsa's stomach was suddenly clutched by the dark grasp of terror. Oh, crap.
Author's Note: Hope you have enjoyed this chapter! Tell me what you like/did not like in the reviews. And please, favorite and follow!
I'll try to get the next one out soon!