Chapter 13

Elsa took a deep breath as she approached the dungeon doors. What was she going to say? Oh hey I thought you were dead for three years but let's just make up? She still felt such strong feelings for him but if Anna was right and he had changed then she would have to just move on. She entered the doors and went down to the end of the hallway where Mikkel's cell was. Her mind was flooded with flashbacks to their childhood. She saw him sitting down staring at the ground with closed eyes. Elsa's heart broke at seeing him chained up like this.

"You never were very sneaky you know." Mikkel said without looking up. Elsa was startled but kept her cool.

"Mikkel, I don't know what to say." Elsa said at loss for words before falling to her knees. "I'm so sorry."

"You shouldn't be, its my damn fault I became a pirate." Mikkel said. "This is what I get for drinking on the job."

"Mikkel look at me." Elsa pleaded. Mikkel slowly raised his head and made eye contact with Elsa. His deep green eyes reflecting her bright blue ones. Elsa reached her hand through the bars and brushed his hair out of his face revealing his strong chiseled features.

"You're all grown up now." Elsa said sadly.

"You should see yourself." Mikkel said clutching his chest which was burning again. Elsa saw this and had a flashback to when she struck him.

"It's where I stuck you isn't it?" She asked with tears welling in her eyes.

"Yeah." Mikkel said grunting from the icy pain.

"I'm so sorry." Elsa said crying. "I've been a horrible friend."

"It takes two to tango." Mikkel said. "I was pretty sucky too."

"No you weren't!" Elsa said. "You literally took care of me everyday. You were by my side when I was sick, sad, or lonely. You always made sure I smiled and laughed everyday. You went out of your way to make things for me." Elsa turned away and started crying to herself.

"Just get over it." Mikkel said a little harsher than he meant to. Elsa was caught off guard by the tone of his voice.

"What do you mean?" She asked wiping a tear from her face.

"I mean just forget the past. If you let me go I will be on my merry way out of here and I won't show my face again." Mikkel said.

"Its not that simple." Elsa said looking away. "No matter how much you mean to me I still have to punish you for piracy."

"You got to be kidding me right now." Mikkel said grabbing the bars of his cell.

"You along with each of your crew." Elsa said feeling her heart rip in half. "Are to receive fifty lashes each."

"Fifty lashes?" Mikkel cried. "You know, for someone who claims to care so much about me you have a funny way of showing it!"

"You think I want to do this Mikkel?" Elsa cried. "Ross wanted you to be hanged!"

"Ah yes that brings up my next point!" Mikkel cried. "Of all the kings in this world you picked the most pompous, dirty, most damned one in the world!" Elsa felt her sadness being replaced by anger. Anna was right, this was not the same Mikkel she grew up with. Did he not understand how hard it had been to marry a man she didn't love? How dare he judge her?

"He's a better man than you." Elsa said with poison.

"A better man than me?" Mikkel asked laughing. "He wouldn't last a week in the world I have to live in! All damn royals are the same! Spoiled little brats who never have to face their problems and instead send an army of men to their death in order to deal with them!"

"And all pirates are the same!" Elsa countered genuinely angered now. "Barbaric uncivilized savages!" Elsa looked around the wall and floor and saw she had frozen it solid. Mikkel sat there and looked at the ice and started laughing.

"Well so much fr having your power under control." Mikkel chuckled. To say Elsa was beyond infuriated would be an understatement. Mikkel had literally pressed every single button to get her mad. She clenched her fists tightly as she gritted her teeth. Her blood vessels threatening to pop out of her skin at any moment.

"I hate you." Elsa growled. Mikkel stared at her wide eyed. Those three words stung him more than any hit would. "Your father would vomit if he saw his legacy! Look at yourself!"

"Don't talk down to me like that you vicious little bitch." Mikkel said as he spat blood at the ground in front of her. "Fuck you." Elsa brought her arm through the bars and delivered a solid smack to his cheek before stomping away with angry tears. Elsa was so mad! But deep down she knew this was all her fault, her ice had struck him and it had frozen his heart.

"How dare you play such a cruel trick on me?" Analise yelled as she smacked Aksel who was doing his best to defend himself from her onslaught.

"I'm telling you its true! I saw him with my own eyes!" Aksel said as her fist hit him in the cheek. Analise started crying as Aksel wrapped his arms around her. "I'll take you to him."

"My baby is alive." Analise said. "All these years I thought he was dead! Why didn't he come back?"

"Well here comes the rather, hard part." Aksel said. "He's in prison for piracy."

"WHAT?" Analise yelled. "Piracy? Prison?"

"He was rescued by a rogue group of exiles and in exchange for saving him he served them for three years." Aksel explained.

"No, no. Pirates?" Analise asked grasping the sides of her head. "He can't be a pirate! He just can't!"

"Come." Aksel said. "I will bring you to him." Analise followed Aksel to his horse outside of the cottage still paralyzed with disbelief that her son was alive. Back at the castle Mikkel sat on the ground fuming. Both Anna and Elsa had managed to piss him off without much effort. He can't believe he used to be able to put up with them when he was younger. His chest burned painfully from the ice. He clutched his chest as he fell over grunting in pain. Once it subsided he sat back up and breathed heavily. The cell door swung open and two guards came outside his cell.

"Seawasp, come with us." One said. Mikkel didn't recognize the voices and assumed these were different guards than before. Mikkel knew there was no point in arguing so he just cooperated and went with them. He once again covered his eyes from the brightness of the sun through the windows as the heavy dungeon doors slammed behind him. He didn't raise his head as he was escorted to an open arena with a single wooden post sticking up from the ground. Mikkel gulped as he knew what it was for. He looked up to see Elsa and Ross glaring at him with intense hatred. Mikkel returned the hateful glare as he was brought to the post. He has chained to the post and was stripped of his shirt and pants leaving him in his undergarments.

"Seawasp, for your crimes you are sentenced to fifty lashes!" Ross said.

"Tell me something I don't know." Mikkel said.

"Very well, disrespecting royalty is worth another fifteen." Ross said. This shut Mikkel up. The man who would deliver the lashes wore a black outfit with a black hood. He walked over to the table to pick up his desired whip. Mikkel gulped as the mans fingers skimmed over the many types of whips.

Please don't go for the one on the left! Mikkel thought as he eyed the menacing device furthest to the left. It was one thick leather strap that diverged into three more with reverse barb hooks on each whip. The man stopped his hand over that one and picked it up. He examined it and smiled as he walked behind Mikkel. Mikkel's heart rate increased as he mentally prepared for this whole new world of hurt. When it came his back burned with pain as layers of skin tissue were flayed off. Mikkel tensed up but refused to scream, he did not want to give the man delivering the blows any satisfaction. Mikkel closed his eyes tight and lightly grunted as four more lashes tore off more skin. The whipper accepted the challenge and this time when he whipped Mikkel, he dug the whip into his skin and than pulled it down so the barbs embedded in his skin. The whipper than pulled with all his strength. Mikkel let out a loud painful scream as his skin was literally torn off. As Elsa watched Mikkel being whipped, all she could see was a six year old Mikkel being tortured.

"What have I done?" She asked herself. "Ross please stop this!"

"I will, after he receives the other forty four lashes." Ross said.

"Look at him!" Elsa cried. "His back is all bloody!"

"A fate fit for a pirate." Ross said. "This was the sentence you approved of."

"Mikkel." Elsa said closing her eyes tightly and bringing her hands to her ears so she could not see or hear the horrible view. Mikkel was now on his knees as the pain was too great to stand up. He had lost count of how many whips he had received. His back now bloody almost absent of any skin. Mikkel's cries echoed though the arena. The whipper had no mercy in his heart for the pirate. After a few more Mikkel fell onto his back exposing his stomach. The whipper smiled as he released his fury on Mikkel's stomach. A pool of blood and skin began to form beneath Mikkel as he began to go into shock from the heavy trauma being dealt to him.

"Enough!" Ross yelled. "That was fifty." The whipper nodded and walked back inside. Mikkel lie on the ground bloodied and exhausted. It burned so bad, he had almost no skin covering his back or stomach and chest. Ross could have swore he saw exposed bone. Elsa slowly opened her eyes and gasped when she saw Mikkel. She didn't care what he said before, seeing him like this destroyed her. She was the one who approved this sentence! She created a staircase out of ice from her elevated platform and jumped down to where Mikkel lie in agonizing pain. She ran up to him, tears running down her face. She almost vomited when she saw the raw meat beneath what little skin he had left. Elsa felt so horrible, death may have been preferable to this. She brought her hand to his face which had gone ghostly pale.

"Mikkel, I'm so sorry." Elsa cried. "I don't hate you, I didn't mean anything I said." Mikkel responded with a groan of pain. Elsa used her powers to create a cool soothing layer of ice around his body. Mikkel felt a great amount of the burning pain subside but it still hurt. Elsa took his bloody sweaty hand in hers and held it tightly.

"Get him off the post, we have other pirates to punish!" Ross said.

"You can't seriously do this to someone else!" Elsa yelled. "Look at him! He is barely alive!"

"I don't wanna hear it, this is the sentence you and I approved, we must please the people." Ross said as a large man was brought in screaming in russian. He was so massive it took five guards to restrain him long enough to get him on the post. Another two guards came and grabbed Mikkel who cried in pain.

"No!" Elsa cried. "Don't hurt him!"

"We are just taking him back to his cell." The guard said.

"He needs a doctor!" Elsa yelled. "He will die from infection!"

"I'm sorry your majesty." The guard said as he gently picked up Mikkel from under the arms and brought him back inside. Elsa glared at Ross who had a pleased smile on his face. Elsa clenched her fists as she stomped back up to him and slapped him directly in the face leaving a heavy red mark.

"You are a sick, sick man!" Elsa said as she brought her hand to her eyes and walked away. She felt sick to her stomach, she couldn't believe a half hour ago she actually wanted to increase the amount of lashes he made her so mad.

"Elsa?" Elsa looked up to see Anna with a concerned look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Oh Anna it was terrible." Elsa said closing her eyes. "Most of his skin was gone! They whipped him so bad!"

"Well at least he wasn't hanged." Anna said trying to comfort her sister.

"Personally I would have chosen death over the whipping he received. He might die from infection anyway!" Elsa said grasping her heart which was literally physically aching. "I was the one who gave that sentence!"

"I don't know what to say." Anna said running her hand through Elsa's hair.

"That isn't even the worst part." Elsa said crying. "Before he was whipped, we got into an argument and I-I-I"

"You what?" Anna asked.

"I told him I hated him." Elsa said choking up. "I called him a savage and that his father would be disgusted with him. Now he might die and that would be the last thing I ever said to him."

"He won't die Elsa." Anna said. "Kristoff can get a healing potion from Grandpabbie."

"Could you?" Elsa asked hopefully.

"Mm-hmm." Anna said nodding.

"Please get that potion Anna!" Elsa pleaded. "I already lost him once, I can't go through that again."

"Don't you worry!" Anna said as she walked to go outside. "I'll be back in a jiffy!"

Mikkel sat in his cell barely conscious, the wounds burned so bad even Elsa's ice layer was doing little at this point. He could see the broken bodies of this crew being escorted back to the cells with chunks of skin hanging off of their backs. Mikkel lowered his head in shame, this was all his fault. He wished he could have taken the lashes for his crew. He was given nothing to wrap himself it. His bare exposed wounds rubbed against the rough sharp rock floor. Was this how he was going to end? Nearly naked and bloodied in a prison cell? He would have been better off if the Black Suns had just killed him all those years ago. The bleeding had mostly stopped as his body formed blood clots but he had lost a lot of blood and was very weak and pale. It would be weeks, even months before he fully recovered from this. He heard the dungeon doors opening slowly. He really hoped it wasn't for more lashes. He recognized the shadow of a woman and groaned as he realized it was Elsa. He kept his head down as the woman approached his door and started to cry.

"My baby." The woman said. Mikkel recognized that voice anywhere.

"Mother?" Mikkel asked shocked as he looked up.

Sorry I took so long to update, I had a really hard time writing this chapter and found myself re writing and scrapping it numerous times. Will Mikkel and Elsa ever have a peaceful reunion? I don't know, I haven't finished writing yet.

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