Elsa stood rooted to the spot, her stately manner shaken.

"Forgive me for disagreeing with you, Queen Umbra, but I was born with these powers."

"You are partially correct. I bestowed you with your powers shortly before you were born."

"How? I have never heard of you before."

"Similar to how the Man in the Moon bestows powers to his 'Guardians'. Oh, where are my manners. Have a seat."

A tall-backed ice chair rose from the floor behind Elsa. Elsa gingerly sat down on the edge of the rather hard chair.

"There, now where was I? Oh yes, I lived on the dark side of the moon, while the Man in the Moon stayed on the lit side. He protects children's hopes and dreams from Pitch Black, you know, and he bestows powers to rather dull people to help him do so. Take this boy for example."

From behind one of the pillars Jack walked to Umbra's throne and kneeled by her side. His crook hung loosely in his hand and his blue eyes were gray with frost. Elsa gripped the arms of her chair, but restrained herself from calling out to him. Umbra had to be controlling him, but how?

Umbra continued, "See, he doesn't remember it, but he was actually alive at one point, but ended up getting himself killed and the Man in the Moon changed him into a winter spirit so he could be one of his Guardians one day. Well, if he could do it, why couldn't I? Instead of changing the dead, though, I decided to change the living. After much deliberation, I decided to take my chances with you. I'm happy to see that my gifts weren't wasted."

Elsa swallowed hard and answered in a relaxed tone that hid her shock and fright, "I'm glad to have not disappointed you. Is that why you've led us here, to see how I've progressed?"

"Again, you are partially correct. As you can see, we are floating in the middle of the ocean, not on the moon."

"Yes, I did notice that. May I ask why?"

"I'm glad you did. You see, I once had a vast kingdom on my side of the moon, until the Man in the Moon showed up. Once they saw how powerful he was, more and more of my subjects left my dark kingdom and went to go have fun in his light. I only had a scant few of my subjects remaining, and with them I tried to kick the Man off the moon and regain my kingdom. Needless to say that didn't work. I was thrown off the moon and my most loyal subjects have been without a queen in many years. I would have returned to the moon by myself if I could, but I can't. Now that you and the boy are here, we will be powerful enough to return to the moon and claim all of it."

"I'm not sure just the three of us would be able to do so against so great an army."

"We do not need any army. Three is a powerful number, Elsa, especially a well-balanced three. With the powers of the living," Umbra said and pointed at Elsa, "the dead," she pointed at Jack, "and the eternal," she pointed to herself, "nothing will stand in our way."

Elsa was filled with dread as the taller woman stared her down. There had to be a way to get herself and Jack out of here that didn't involve them attempting to take over the moon.

"While that is a gracious offer, if I could speak with Jack in private for a moment to discuss it—"

"It wasn't an offer," Umbra said, her smile gone.

A sharp sudden pain ran through Elsa's body. She looked down and saw an almost invisible shard of ice sinking into her chest. Elsa doubled over in pain and fear. Umbra must have done the same trick to control Jack. Tears formed in Elsa's eyes as she thought of Anna and the look on her face when she would learn that Elsa wasn't coming home.

No, she couldn't do that to Anna. She couldn't!

The pain began to fade away, but Elsa still felt like herself. Still folded over, she looked at the shard and saw it sliding away from her heart and melt into her hand. If she could melt this treacherous piece of ice, what else could she melt? She knew what she had to try to do, but she had to play as Umbra's puppet to do it.

Elsa slowly rose until she was sitting straight up in her chair and kept her face looking as bored as it could be. Umbra smiled again.

"Feeling better, Elsa?"

"Yes, Queen Umbra," Elsa answered flatly, hoping that Umbra's long ears could not hear her heart pounding in her chest.

"Good. Come, children, we have much to do before the day's out."

"Yes, Queen Umbra," Jack and Elsa said in unison.

Elsa held back a sigh of relief as she Umbra plucked up her staff and mirror and led the two up the spiraling staircase. Elsa glanced at Jack from time to time to see if he was faking too, but the dull look in his eyes showed otherwise.

At long last they reached the top of staircase. The double doors flew open for Umbra as she passed through them and stopped at the top step of the smaller entrance staircase. Elsa and Jack stopped underneath the archway. Elsa examined it for a moment and waited.

Umbra rose her arms and called her small army of ice golems to her.

"Oh, you have served me well, my little imitations—" she said.

Elsa inched closer to the wall until her fingers could just touch it.

"—and listen well. We shall be heading for the moon—"

This might not work. Sure, she could melt a little of Umbra's ice, but…

"—and you will have your day in combat. And after the glorious battle—"

There wasn't time to second-guess her self. It had to work!

"—I will finally have my kingdom and my full strength!"

Elsa pressed her hands against the wall, closed her eyes and concentrated. In one heartbeat she could feel every inch of ice Umbra had constructed. In another she willed it to melt away.

"No!" Umbra screamed.

Elsa opened her eyes and watched the magnificent castle and the ice golems that protected for who knew how many years before transforming into harmless snowflakes.

Destroying Umbra's castle took so much energy that she was too tired to even scream as she fell towards the dark, frigid waters.

"Elsa!" Jack shouted as he dived after her and caught her just before she hit the water. "You okay?"

She looked up at him. The gray frost melted into tears that ran down his pale face.

"Ye—oh no," she groaned.

They both looked up and saw Queen Umbra floating in midair, the Hopeless Storm raging around them all. In the light Elsa saw the near invisible shards of ice flying towards them and rose her hand to melt them, but Jack knocked them away with his staff.

"You won't hypnotize us this time, Umbra!"

She pointed at them with her staff and snarled, "You will come with me, whether you like it or not."

Ice bloomed from Jack and Elsa's feet and grew like crystal up their legs.

"Together?" Jack asked Elsa as he pointed his crook towards Umbra.

"Together!" Elsa answered as she held her hand behind the crook.

Their separate ice blasts twisted together into one shrieking blast that engulfed the moon queen in its white light. The ice on Jack and Elsa's legs melted away and the storm clouds dispersed. They stopped their attack on the queen and the light faded away, showing a glimpse of Queen Umbra frozen in a queen-sized snowflake before falling into the ocean and disappearing into its depths.

"Did we…?" Jack started, but couldn't finish her sentence.

"No, we didn't kill her," Elsa sighed, feeling absolutely exhausted. "She's eternal. She has no beginning and no end."

"So what you're saying is that she'll probably be back? Well, if we see an endless snowstorm on the sea again, we'll know what to do. Great job melting her castle, by the way, I didn't know you could that!"

"I didn't either. I could melt my creations, but I had no idea I could melt others until I tried it."

"I wonder how long it'll take for her to thaw out."

"Who knows. I've never combined my powers with another person's," she sighed as she closed her eyes.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yes, just tired. Let me know when we get to the ship."

"Sure," he said softly before flying out into the open ocean in search of the ship, both their minds at ease knowing that Queen Umbra was, for now at least, not going to stir up more trouble.