"Ladies and gentlemen, we are now leaving the North Sea, and if you look to your left, you will see the picturesque archipelago known as the Southern Isles, which, twelve years ago, was brought almost to the brink of collapse by a civil war as not one, not two, but three princes rose up and attempted to seize the throne from their brother the king (and each other), while two other princes tried to take advantage of the chaos and divide the kingdom, each declaring himself king over his own province. The convoluted mess of rivals to be fought forced all the opposing rebel factions to spread themselves so thin that they eventually had no choice but to surrender, with no consolation other than the fact that failure was shared equally all around. The moral of this story? Don't have thirteen sons." Tony closed the file, wiped the screen, and looked up from the tablet in his hands. "Boy, can you imagine what Asgard would look like now if they had thirteen princes instead of just two?"
"If they were all like Loki, there would be no Asgard by now," Bruce said from his seat on the other side of the jet.
"I can't believe none of them ever did the math and considered there might be easier ways to take a throne than fighting your way through twelve opponents," Tony said in wonder.
"How much conflict has there been since then?" Bruce asked.
"No idea," Tony admitted. "That's all she wrote."
"I told you S.H.I.E.L.D. has hardly any information on these kingdoms," Hawkeye called back from his seat at the helm.
Tony stood up and walked to the front of the jet. "Hardly any is better than nothing. 'Knowledge is power' isn't just an ideally fortune cookie-sized truism."
The blizzard outside seemed to be strengthening, enveloping the aircraft in a white cocoon and swallowing up the last shred of visibility. Hawkeye made some adjustments to the settings on the control panel and, still without turning around, asked, "What's the latest report on this cold wave?"
Tony was already tapping away at the tablet's screen. "It's still cold. But if you want more details... Oh, look, Niagara Falls has frozen, and... a major snowstorm has left almost all of North Carolina stranded at school, work, or on the road. Boy, where's global warming when you need it?"
"Niagara Falls frozen?" Banner gasped, getting up and taking the tablet from Stark to see for himself. He wasn't joking. "Unbelievable."
Hawkeye shook his head as he struggled to keep them on course. "If we can't find out what's causing this, things are going to start getting serious."
Bruce raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Right... I'd hate to see what that would look like."
"How far are we from the source?" Tony asked, looking from one side of the windows to the other.
"If the location S.H.I.E.L.D. pinpointed is accurate, just a few hours," Hawkeye answered. "We might have been there by now if it weren't for this weather."
Bruce knew he wasn't exaggerating; the Quinjet had put every airliner in the world to shame yesterday, crossing the Atlantic in only four hours. They had spent the night in London (Stark had gotten them rooms at a hotel and somehow made arrangements for them to stash the jet overnight at the airport) before taking off early this morning and flying north. Bruce would have enjoyed it more if he hadn't felt the urge to look over his shoulder every five seconds, paranoid that every person who saw him knew he was the monster they had seen five years ago. The gossip they'd heard while they were there about something big that had happened in Greenwich a few months ago hadn't helped. Between the bad memories and the merciless cold, he had been much more eager to leave and get on with the mission than he had been to stop... which, no doubt, explained his negligence when they had started discussing the next day's itinerary.
Stark had assumed that they would have to visit the proverbial "gateway" country of Maldonia first and was obviously disappointed when Hawkeye told him it wasn't necessary – Maldonia was simply the only part of the modern world that dealt with the kingdoms living in medieval stasis on a regular basis, not a liaison. Stark, curious to see as much of this part of the world as possible, tried to argue they ought to go anyway – the locals would likely be the most willing to help them and to share any useful information they might have, right? Bruce had agreed with Hawkeye that it was too far out of the way, eventually saying, "You're not missing anything, Stark – there's nothing to see there."
He still hadn't realized what he'd revealed until Stark had asked slyly, "Really? How would you know?"
Bruce had the duration of one deep breath to come up with an answer that wouldn't invite more discussion. He had settled for: "I... ended up there once. After an incident."
"You've never mentioned that before."
"It was only for a day. Nice place – nothing exciting."
"Only one day, huh?" Stark had said skeptically.
"One day, one night, and part of the next morning, if you want to be technical."
"Fun – meet anyone interesting there?"
Bruce had actually grinned. Let him fish, as long as he was fishing in the wrong place. "No."
He had walked away, but, of course, Stark had followed him. "You sure?"
"Nobody more interesting than the innkeeper."
"Make any new friends?"
"Not one."
"Anything happen while you were there?"
"No." Bruce had been able to look him right in the eye and say in complete honesty, "Nothing happened, and I don't know anyone in Maldonia," before calmly picking up the newspaper. His cool attitude gave Stark no choice but to accept that he was telling the truth, and, to his relief, the subject had dropped. The last thing he needed was for Stark to start teasing him about the one friend he had made in these parts. He'd never hear the end of it. The playboy would blow it all out of proportion, jump to all the wrong conclusions, make all sorts of crazy assumptions, and the jokes would never cease – better if he knew nothing about it. It was nothing important, nothing to get worked up about...
Bruce quickly jerked his head around and sat back down to prevent himself from looking at the map on the console; fortunately, he had managed to stay out of all discussions related to their route since then. Except for that one slip up, he had been careful to ignore all references to their course, progress, direction, and destination ever since they'd left New York. He knew roughly where they were going, but he forbade himself from knowing where they were at any time. This ensured that he would obey his order not to waste time calculating how close he was, wondering if they would end up passing through there, or gazing out the window in that direction. That part had been easy. Not so easy was the order not to mentally retrace the journey he'd once made through here, sailing to Corona, then Maldonia, and finally riding into Denmark. He tried to focus on the much more pressing issue at hand, but when you were traveling a long distance with nothing to do but talk and think, your thoughts had a tendency to run wild. He hoped they would get there soon; unlike Stark, he certainly wasn't disappointed they weren't making any more stops along the way...
Stark walked up next to him, interrupting his thoughts. "Some trip, huh? The view's like staring into that white light above you in the dentist's chair."
Bruce cleared his throat and said, "I've had worse trips."
Stark looked down at him and smiled. "What was the best trip you've ever had?"
Bruce shrugged and tried to sound nonchalant as he said, "New York had the happiest ending, I guess."
"Besides that."
"Well, it's a long list to narrow down."
"I've got time – what else are we gonna do, play Spot The Snowflake?"
"Whatever you do, I would sit down," came Hawkeye's voice from up front. "The weather's getting rough."
"Getting?" Tony said incredulously, only to be thrown off his feet by a bout of turbulence.
"I warned him," Hawkeye sighed. "Hang on."
Bruce pulled Stark into the seat next to him as the small craft continued to jolt and shake in the wind. "Now I know what riding on the Enterprise feels like," Tony quipped. After a few minutes, he amended it to, "Make that Dorothy's farmhouse." The thick snow continued to block out any view of the sky or ground or sea down below as the jet pitched and rolled dangerously in the tempest.
"This isn't good," Hawkeye said softly but nonetheless ominously.
"What'd we fly into?"
"Nothing on the radar – it's like it came up around us." The sudden storm continued to knock the Quinjet around like a pinball. It was twice as unsettling to know this was happening to something built to deal with much more severe threats. Everyone on board knew this shouldn't have been happening!
"What's going on?" Bruce called to him.
"I can't get her stable. It's like the wind's trying to knock us out of the air."
"It can do that?" Stark asked.
"If it can, S.H.I.E.L.D. better find some new engineers." Hawkeye continued working various buttons and instruments on the control panel as he spoke. The three men eventually felt the craft stabilize, but the pilot didn't sound any less worried. "If this keeps up, I'm gonna have to try to find a place to land."
"Make sure it's one we can walk away from," said Tony.
It was then that Bruce noticed a slight change in the sound of the hum of the craft. Judging by Agent Barton's sudden movement, he'd noticed it to. "Now what's going on?" Bruce asked him.
"I don't know." The snow was beginning to thin, but Hawkeye continued to struggle with the controls. "What is this?"
The snow thinned out and then disappeared altogether – surprisingly quickly, it seemed, to the three men in the air. Even stranger was the odd crackling sound that seemed to be coming from all directions. "Not sure I want to ask what that is," Bruce decided.
Tony rolled his sleeves away from his wristbands. "I'm gonna check this out."
"How do you plan to get out there without freezing us to death?" Bruce couldn't help asking. Another bout of turbulence made him ask, "What was that?"
Hawkeye sounded concerned and puzzled but as composed as always when he said, "I'm losing control. It's like the system's frozen." He looked at a panel on his left. "What the..." He pressed a few buttons but got no reassuring results. "I don't believe this."
The crackling sound got louder. "Believe what?" Tony asked.
"The engines are freezing." The men felt the craft dip considerably before Hawkeye managed to pull it back up. "We're flying heavy, and the power's dying. This entire jet's freezing over."
"In midair? How?" Tony exclaimed as the mysterious noise died away.
Hawkeye tried a few more controls before he said, "Nothing's responding. I can't do anything – everything's freezing up."
"How is this happening?" Bruce asked, looking as far around them as the windows allowed, as if the answer was somewhere out there.
"It doesn't – not to S.H.I.E.L.D. technology," Barton said, trying to his best to keep them in the air until he could land as best he could with nothing to guide him. It wasn't long, however, before they felt themselves losing altitude.
Once Hawkeye got them into something resembling stability again, Tony tried to stand up. "I'll get out there, see if there's anything I can do."
"Wouldn't do that if I were you, Stark," Hawkeye warned him.
"Why?"
"Because we're going down."
Tony gave up any plan of getting into his suit. "Oh, great."
"Brace for impact!"
Bruce closed his eyes, held his breath, and listened for the monitor on his wrist to start beeping, but it didn't. Of course it wouldn't – why would he panic when he knew he was in no danger of dying? Whatever happened when they hit the ground, the other guy wouldn't let him die. He'd be the one left to sort through the wreckage for the bodies of his friends... He opened his eyes just in time to see the ground fly up at them.
They had crashed on a gentle slope. The Quinjet drifted down through the snow for several yards before something in its path brought it to an abrupt halt. There was silence for a moment as everyone caught their breath and relaxed their tensed muscles before Hawkeye turned around to his face his teammates and asked, "Everyone okay?"
All three were shaken up, stunned, and a little sore but completely unharmed – the Quinjet had been built to withstand much stronger damage and to protect its occupants from much tougher abuse. Whatever had brought them down, at least it hadn't affected the ability of the structure to survive the impact. Bruce noticed the other two were looking at him apprehensively. "Yeah, it's okay," he assured them, grateful that the crash had happened too fast to let his heart rate get to dangerous levels. "I'm fine."
Tony shrugged and said, "Well, no harm done."
"Not so sure about that," Hawkeye observed as the three slowly began to disentangle themselves from the seats and straps.
The first thing Bruce noticed when he stepped outside was a complete lack of wind, which was highly disconcerting when he remembered the blizzard they had flown through only minutes ago – how had it died down so fast? The second thing he noticed was how cold he didn't feel; Stark's super weather protective gear was passing its first real test. He stepped away from the jet and glanced around him. They were at the bottom of a hilly valley at the edge of a forest; he could see the path the Quinjet had carved in the snow on its way down one hill before it came to rest against the side of another. There were no landmarks in sight, nothing to see in any direction but more trees and snow, nothing that could provide some clue where they were.
Stark came out right behind him. "No welcoming committee?"
Bruce shook his head and continued scanning their surroundings for any sign of movement. "Looks deserted."
"Good, 'cause I'm not waiting for the suit to power up," Stark said as he pulled out a tablet. He and Banner turned around and looked at the jet. "Whoah." Sure enough, the turbines on the wings were covered in a thick layer of ice, but it wasn't just the engines – the entire body was coated in a thin layer of frost, with icicles that should have been jolted off in the crash hanging from just about every edge. It was now easy to see how the jet had gotten too heavy and too cold to fly.
"There's something you don't see every day," Bruce remarked serenely, lest his surprise affect his heart too strongly.
Stark took a few steps around the grounded craft. "How did we take on that much ice so fast?" Bruce, who couldn't think of any reason for it, said nothing. Tony dug his fingers into the metal and pried open a frozen panel. He reached into the opening and pulled out a cable, which he connected to the tablet, and began running diagnostics.
Bruce took one last look around the area before turning his back on it and stepped up next to Stark. "How bad?"
"Hard to say." Stark worked the screen silently for a minute before he spoke again. "Not much it can tell me. I'll break out the suit; maybe after I thaw this thing out, I can get a better reading and assess all the damage."
Bruce studied the display, but mechanics were not his area of expertise. "And if we can't get it running?"
"Well, then we call for help. How should we put it? 'Hello, Director Fury, we need you to send a rescue party – we crashed while violating international border laws.' "
Bruce nodded – the same thought had occurred to him. "Too bad you didn't build a passenger seat for that suit."
"Come on, you guys wouldn't mind dangling in midair for a few thousand miles, would you?" A loud beep drew his attention back to the screen. "Oh, crap..."
Bruce looked at the alert. "The fuel tanks?"
"Ruptured – more than half leaked out. Wonder how far it is to the nearest gas station?"
"How long will the reserves last us?"
Stark sighed as he opened another window on the screen. "Get us home from here – I wouldn't recommend trying to go any farther... further... Farther? Further?"
"Well, it saves you a lot of trouble – no sense repairing a plane without fuel. Guess the world's just gonna have to freeze."
"Look on the bright side – gives more tourists time to see the frozen Niagara Falls."
"Ready for some more good news?" The scientists turned around to see Hawkeye stepping outside and walking towards them, holding up the tablet in his hand. "We're off course."
"Of course," Tony said as he disconnected his own tablet and shut it off.
"How far?" asked Bruce.
"A few hundred miles farther east than we should be."
Stark took the tablet from him to see for himself. "I knew we should've taken a left at Albuquerque."
Hawkeye folded his arms and shook his head. "I don't know how we got turned in this direction or when."
Bruce looked around them again. "So where are we?"
"Hard to tell, the maps of this region aren't completely accurate, but it looks like..." Bruce's gaze fell on Hawkeye just in time to see the latter's eyes widen and focus on something in his direction. One nanosecond later, the archer had his bow raised and an arrow on the string. "Duck!"
Bruce instantly bent down as the arrow flew over his head. He heard the ping of metal against metal and Stark yell, "Hey!" just before he stood up, spun around, and watched someone dressed in primitive soldier garb fall out of a tree, dropping a shield and crossbow as he hit the ground. This triggered the appearance of about twenty other men dressed in the same uniform emerging from behind trees, hills, boulders, and snowbanks, half with drawn swords and half with loaded crossbows. "What the..." was all Stark managed to say before they began firing.
"Watch out!" Bruce yelled out. Hawkeye was firing back with more arrows that they successfully deflected with their shields and armor. The unarmed Bruce and Tony quickly turned to the door of the jet when a bolt from a crossbow whizzed past Stark's face, just inches in front of his nose, causing him to stumble and allowing a line of men to run between them and the door.
Stark yelled, "Stay down!" and reached for his right wristband as they ducked under the line of fire and backed up until the three of them were standing back to back facing a semi-circle of assailants.
One of their attackers shouted, "Freeze!" in Norwegian.
Tony called back in Norwegian, "Look, we don't want to hurt anybody!"
As Stark's wristbands lit up, Hawkeye warned him, "Don't do anything stupid, Stark!"
"Who, me?" he replied sarcastically.
"Look, we don't want any trouble!" Banner shouted.
"We mean you no harm!" Hawkeye added, but nobody lowered their weapons.
Tony looked anxiously at Bruce, who was breathing hard, trying not to let the situation stress him out. His wrist monitor showed his heart rate was going up, although not as quickly as it would have before he'd accustomed his body to feeling anger and stress without reacting. Still, he and the others all knew he was walking a temperamental tightrope.
Tony looked back at the men surrounding them whom the weapons in his suit could vaporize in five seconds, not wanting to hurt anyone or cause the situation to escalate to hulking-out levels. They would really freak out if they saw it fly out to him, and who knew what they would do then? He abandoned any thought of calling the suit and tried to think of a way out of this.
When someone ran towards them with his sword raised, Hawkeye abandoned the diplomatic approach and fired an explosive arrow into the air near the jet. The soldiers scattered when it exploded, creating an opening. The three friends only managed to run a few feet, however, before four guards with drawn swords blocked their path, stopping them in their tracks. Hawkeye had loaded another arrow on the string and aimed when one of them yelled at him, "Drop your weapon now!"
The soldiers had recovered from the shock of the explosion and had all their crossbows aimed back at their three targets but had not started shooting again. Everyone was still, waiting to see who would make the first move. The same soldier, whose more elaborate uniform seemed to mark him as the leader, yelled again, "I said drop it, witch hunter!"
Without turning his head or lowering his bow, Hawkeye asked in English, "What did he call me, Stark?"
"Uh... witch hunter?" Tony said uncertainly.
"Yeah, that's what your program said, too. What does that mean?"
"How should I know?"
"Listen – we mean you no harm. We're not enemies," Bruce tried to tell them. He had instantly recognized the uniform, but there was no time to think about that. By force of habit, all his attention was focused on stopping his attackers from getting themselves killed. "We got lost and crashed here by accident. We just..."
The captain stepped closer to them and demanded, "Who sent you?"
"Nobody," Agent Barton told him. "We're on our way north. We came here by accident. We're sorry for disturbing you, but it was quite unintentional."
One of the soldiers stepped closer and shoved his crossbow practically in the archer's face. "You expect us to believe that, witch hunter?"
"Have you come for our queen? Like all the others?" the captain growled.
"I don't know what you're talking about, and I have no business with your queen."
Another soldier gestured to the Quinjet. "What is this contraption?" he asked, relatively calmly. "Where did you get it?"
"It's very complicated," Tony answered.
"Where's your partner?" somebody asked Hawkeye angrily, looking around them as if he suspected they had reinforcements. "Is she waiting to sneak up on us?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," a genuinely confused Hawkeye repeated.
"You obviously have us confused with someone else," Tony tried to tell them.
"Liar!"
The soldier who seemed the most composed stepped up to the Captain. "Sir, there's no sign of the girl. There have never been any reports of them traveling in such a device as this. I don't believe it's him."
"We can't let him go until we're sure," the Captain replied.
"Where do you come from? Are you spies? Scouts from Weselton?"
"I knew he couldn't be trusted."
Guessing the name of their country would mean nothing to these people, Hawkeye tried to explain, "We're not from around here. We came from far away, across the ocean..."
"Strangers from that world have no business here!"
"Have you come to rob us or enslave us?"
"Honestly, we were just passing through!" Tony yelled in exasperation.
"You expect us to fall for that?"
Bruce could feel his heart speeding up as the tension mounted. He'd deliberately remained silent as much as he could, trying to ignore what was going on around him; he'd allowed himself to always feel angry, not threatened – remaining calm when angry couldn't deaden his body's fight-or-flight response. He had to diffuse the situation before the unsuspecting soldiers pushed it too far. While some of them were still arguing with Stark and Barton, he took a deep breath, turned to the captain, and said, "Look, captain, we're not here to hurt anyone. You can trust us. I know you don't remember me, but I'm a friend of..."
"Silence, stranger!"
Bruce shuddered, but as he heard no warning beep from his wrist, he risked another try: "Please, listen – I'm a friend of..."
"I said silence!"
Too afraid to push his luck anymore, Bruce closed his mouth and fell back next to his friends. Same old, same old – couldn't fight back, couldn't resist, couldn't defend himself, just sit back quietly and surrender. Forever forced to respond like a coward or some weakling to every threat, every challenge. It was so aggravating, he knew he would have lost control now if it hadn't been for the strategy he'd learned here.
"Friend?" he heard Stark wonder aloud behind him.
"Would someone mind telling us where we are?" Hawkeye asked.
Glaring at the captors he couldn't fight, Bruce said in a toneless voice, "Arendelle."
Stark and Hawkeye simultaneously turned to each other and exchanged a very perplexed look before turning to Banner. "How do you know that?" Hawkeye asked him.
"I've been here before," he answered in the same monotone. Some of the soldiers seemed surprised by his answer, as well, and turned to whisper to each other.
"What? When?" Tony asked.
"Two years ago."
"Any idea what's the best way out of this?" Hawkeye asked him, keeping his eye and arrow on their opponents.
"Enough of this!" one of the soldiers yelled, pointing his sword at them. "What are we going to do with them?"
"Kill them!"
"Trespassers!"
"Invaders!"
"Arrest them! We can't let them go!"
"Take them to the dungeons!"
"Lock them up until we get some real answers!"
The captain stepped forward and declared, "Enough!" He glared at Hawkeye, whom he seemed to regard as their leader, and announced, "We'll take them to the queen – let her decide what to do with them". He gestured to his men, half of whom sheathed their swords, while the other half closed in on the prisoners, brandishing their crossbows.
"We're not going anywhere with you," Tony said, gripping his right wristband again. There might be no other way...
"It's okay, Stark," Banner said without moving a muscle.
Hawkeye pointed his arrow at the soldier closest to him. "We can't risk..."
"Just go with them," Bruce said firmly. "It'll be fine."
Stark carefully scanned the crowd, doing a final headcount. "I can take them; we don't have to..."
"There's no need for anyone to get hurt," Banner insisted. "This is the best way, trust me."
Hawkeye pulled his bowstring further back, still looking for the most opportune place to strike. "You sure about this?"
"Completely."
With a great deal of effort, Hawkeye slowly lowered his bow but didn't soften his glare. "Do what he says, Stark," he said as he returned the arrow to the quiver on his back, keeping his sharp eyes alert for the slightest sign of attack.
"I'm not just gonna let them take us all prisoner!" Tony exclaimed in disbelief. "We didn't do anything! We..."
"We need to keep everybody calm," Hawkeye reminded him.
Stark threw one look at Banner before shaking his head, rolling his eyes, and mumbling, "I don't believe this" under his breath. He raised his hands up in surrender. "Okay, you got us! We'll come quietly!"
"Good," said the captain. He sheathed his sword and held his hand out to Hawkeye. "Hand over your weapons." He might just as well have asked him to cut off his arm; the archer instinctively gripped his bow tightly in both hands but otherwise didn't move.
"Do what he says, Barton," Tony said mockingly. "We need to keep everybody calm, you know."
There was a long pause before Hawkeye hissed, "I'm not calm." He removed his bow and quiver of arrows with slow, robotic movements and handed them over in silent seething, fury. When a soldier took them, it took him awhile to release his fingers from around the bow.
Six guards surrounded the prisoners, keeping them covered with their crossbows, and the company made its way out of the valley. The three travelers walked where they were led, Bruce in the lead, followed by Tony, and then Hawkeye. None of them felt like talking, but Bruce didn't even glance to his left or right as he marched, which his two friends found rather unnerving. They both decided it would be wisest to leave him alone, Tony even putting his curiosity about what he had heard him say during the fight aside for now, and turned their attention to the terrain they were marching through.
The deserted wilderness of snow and trees never changed; they passed no buildings and met no other people. It seemed few or none of the citizens elected to live near the mountain range separating the kingdom from its southern neighbor Norway. Had they not needed to be on their guard, the frozen scenery would have looked beautiful. Occasionally, the ground leveled off, but for the most part, they were always walking downhill. They soon got to an open area where a bay, a port, and a stone castle were visible on the near horizon, with smaller buildings farther off in the distance.
Tony, unsurprisingly, was the first one to speak. "So that's Arendelle, eh? Charming." The soldiers urged them down the slope. "Fury wasn't kidding. Looks like it's still the fifteenth century here."
It wasn't the medieval look of the place that caught Hawkeye's attention, however. "Where is everybody?" he asked, detecting very few signs of life or movement in the town or port.
"Inside taking cover from the cold," one of the guards explained.
"Lucky them," said another.
They had to cross an inlet of the sea to reach the castle. As they were crossing the bridge, Hawkeye looked down at the water and asked Stark in English, "Notice anything odd?"
"Do you want them listed alphabetically or from most to least?" Stark asked in return.
"Anything about the water?"
Tony looked uninterested at the blue expanse a few feet below. "Nope, looks like pretty normal, mundane... water?" He did a double-take as he realized what he was seeing.
"Exactly. It's over 30° below freezing, but the water's not frozen. It should be a solid layer of ice by now."
Tony debated asking their escorts about their fjord defying the laws of physics, but he was still annoyed about being their prisoner. He took a few steps forward and asked Banner instead, "Know anything about that?"
"Not exactly," was Banner's curt reply.
"You don't seem surprised."
"I'm not. I have a theory, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"What's the story with this place?"
Bruce grinned faintly as he answered, "You'll find out."
They reached the shore and began walking down the icy, cobblestone streets. Judging by the formation of the nearest buildings, Tony guessed they were passing through the town square. It was hard to tell when the streets were almost empty and most of the shops were closed, though. Very few people were about – lumberjacks hauling carts full of wood for very hungry fires, no doubt; children throwing snowballs at each other; the occasional man hurrying towards a door with a dead rabbit or fish basket in his hand; a dauntless shopkeeper or two; and servants loading sleds with supplies pulled by reindeer or dogs that they seemed to be driving towards a ship back in the port that must have been preparing to leave. Tony could detect mostly Norwegian, mixed with a little Finnish and some language he was sure he'd never heard before, in their speech, but few of them were talking.
Now it was Tony's turn to be confused – by the way people looked at them. Only half of them stopped and looked as they passed and started whispering to their neighbors with concern or confusion. The other half acted like they didn't even notice the strangers with foreign features and bizarre clothes being escorted by a small troop of armed guards, not as if they were afraid or angry, but as if they simply didn't care, as if it wasn't worth noticing, and not because it was a boring or common sight, but because it didn't matter. They went about their business as if the unusual display held no interest for them; in fact, their faces and manners seemed to say that nothing could, that there was nothing interesting or worth noting to be found in the world anymore.
Tony couldn't explain it, but there was an air of depression and gloom in the air that increased tenfold whenever he looked some of the people in the eye. Physically, everyone looked normal, but some of their expressions looked so cold and hostile that he couldn't resist the impulse to turn away. It wasn't directed at the three strangers or the soldiers or their neighbors but at the world in general. It was like half the population was suffering from a contagious, severe clinical depression. Judging by how Barton asked, "You feel that?", he wasn't the only one to notice.
"Yeah – what is it?" Stark asked with a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold he was fully shielded from.
Banner shook his head. "I don't know – it wasn't like this before."
"See anyone you recognize?" Stark asked him next.
Another head shake. "No."
"You didn't even look."
"I don't need to – she wouldn't be out here."
"She?" Tony Stark was still Tony Stark. "This is where she's from?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
Tony looked intently at each face, wondering who Banner's mystery woman could be. He had to give up soon, however. "What's up with everybody?" he wondered, looking at all the cheerless people.
"The cold?" Hawkeye suggested.
"You don't get this depressed just because it's cold," said Tony. "Something's going on here." He noticed their guards watching them suspiciously while they conversed in English; he could detect no sign to indicate any of them understood it. If there was something in the air around here, none of them seemed to be affected by it, either.
The crowd thickened as they approached the castle, and the courtyard behind the giant, open gates was bustling with activity. The heavy sense of gloom faded significantly; all the people here were laughing and enjoying themselves – playing with their families in the snow, skating on a giant ice rink, chiseling blocks of ice into sculptures, and drinking cups of steaming liquid being distributed from wheeled carts. The contrast was staggering, not least of all because it was no warmer here.
Desperate to find anything or anyone that could be potentially useful, Stark risked tapping Banner on the shoulder. "How about now? Anyone you know?"
"No," Bruce answered instantly.
"I'm not fooling around. If we can't fight our way out, we need help, and we need answers. Is your friend anywhere around here?"
"No."
"But she is from this kingdom, right? The, how'd you put it, the most beautiful woman in the world? She's here somewhere."
"Stark, I can honestly say I've never met any of these people in my life, and I don't know anyone out here."
"Then who is she?"
Tony could make out onlookers calling out, with the eager curiosity you'd expect from people, "What's the meaning of this?" and "What's going on here?" and such as they marched through the courtyard. The guards waved them gently aside, and the captain sent two of them running ahead, probably to announce their arrival. Tony waved and smiled at a few of them as they passed, positive one of the women here must be his friend's secret heartache, unable to abandon his fun-loving, carefree demeanor even now. To his disappointment, he spotted no glimmer of recognition in anyone's eye, heard no gasp of surprise, and saw no one pushing their way through the crowd as if their life depended on getting closer.
Who could it be? One of the shopgirls they'd passed earlier? If only more of them had been out... Maybe he was telling the truth, and he wasn't looking for her because he knew where she was. As they crossed the threshold into the castle itself, Tony suddenly wondered if she lived or worked here, maybe a chambermaid or a seamstress or a cook. No servants came in sight, however, as they waited in the entrance hall, presumably for the clearance to proceed to wherever they were going next.
"What's this queen like, Banner?" Hawkeye whispered cautiously, as if he wasn't willing to take for granted that none of their captors could understand their language.
"You'll see," was the only answer he got.
Tony figured he might as well pass the time by trying to fill in the blanks. "No king, apparently... must've died. Probably an ancient, wrinkled, old dowager who doesn't get along with her step-daughter and refuses to hand over the throne to her son." Banner didn't say a word or even turn around, just shook his head and snickered. Hawkeye glared at him, but he just shrugged. "What? They can't understand us."
"Never assume that," the agent warned him.
"Wouldn't matter what they thought of us if you'd just let me take care of them from the beginning," Stark couldn't help pointing out.
"You want to file that casualty report, be my guest," Hawkeye said as the doors in front of them opened a crack.
One of the soldiers who had been sent ahead earlier came out and walked up to the captain. "The queen is ready to see them now."
"Good," the captain said with a smile. "Let's see what she has to say about these foreigners."
The two doors were pushed open from the other side and the visitors led through. The throne room was crowded, too, its occupants' dress and mannerisms clearly identifying them as royalty and nobility. The chatter from the small groups and clusters of people fell to whispers as the guards strolled forward with their prisoners.
Tony was at first too distracted by the magnificent architecture of the room to look for the person they were being brought to. "This isn't medieval," he observed. "This is more modern."
"Guess some things have trickled in from the outside world," Hawkeye guessed. "I thought I saw a kid on a bicycle on our way in."
"That's reassuring, I guess," said Tony. "At least they probably won't try to burn us at the stake for black sorcery or something. I sure hope this queen has the common sense to listen when we tell her whoah, baby!" Tony's eyes almost popped out of his head as they finally fell on the woman sitting on the throne at the far end of the room, half-turned aside talking to some official. He'd never seen such perfection of face and figure united in one frame, and he'd studied plenty! His eyes roved of their own volition from her glistening, fine, white hair to the shapely legs peeking out from the slit in her gown and back again, pausing at the usual place, which her outfit nicely emphasized. Whatever it was made of, the silver-blue gown gave the impression she was wrapped in starlight, magnifying the effect of her beauty tenfold.
Hawkeye rolled his eyes as Stark gaped openly at the queen and wolf-whistled. To their mutual surprise, Bruce instantly reached over, knocked him hard on the shoulder, and whispered, "Shut it, Stark."
"Ow," Tony said, rubbing his shoulder. "What'd I say?"
"I thought you were spoken for," an annoyed Hawkeye reminded him.
"Doesn't make me blind."
Tony threw up his hands as one of the soldiers blocked their path with a sword. "Halt!"
The three prisoners did as they were told. Only the captain strode forward and bowed to the queen up on the dais. "The foreigners are here, Your Majesty."
A pleasant but regal voice said, "Thank you, captain." He backed off to the side and stood at attention while the queen nodded at her previous visitor, who bowed and stepped away as well. Only then did she turn and look up at her new guests, allowing them to see her dazzling blue eyes clearly for the first time.
It wasn't the color that got Tony's attention, however, but the expression in them. It only lasted for half a second, at most, before it was wiped away with the speed and seamlessness of an expert at the art (she would have made a great businesswoman), and an untrained eye would never have caught it. The head of Stark Industries, however, had too much experience reading people to miss it. It was a combination of disbelief, doubt, recognition, and excitement, not in succession but instantaneously, filtered through a screen of burning curiosity for answers and joy that didn't care to care ask any questions – the wordless equivalent of "It's you!"
Tony glanced briefly around him, wondering who in the room the look was meant for, before turning back to the queen, who hadn't moved or said a word even after she'd composed herself. Nobody else did, either, but stood waiting on her orders. Finally, she slowly rose to her feet, beaming brightly, and walked just as slowly down the dais towards them.
With no warning, Bruce stepped forward at the same time and walked towards her. Tony barely had time to wonder what he was doing when several of the guards darted forward, one of them warning, "Hold it right there!" and another exclaiming "How dare you!" before the queen raised a hand and they all fell silent. They exchanged some puzzled and concerned looks with each other but stood still as the two continued walking until they were only a few feet apart.
It was right before they both stopped that the queen said, "Dr. Banner."
There was a long pause, and then Bruce bowed towards her and said, "Your Highness."
"It's good to see you again," she said calmly but with the same wide smile.
"It's good to see you, too," he said in the same tone and with the same smile.
"I didn't expect to find you back here so soon."
"I didn't expect to be back here... so soon."
"Where have you been?"
"Everywhere. It's a long list."
"Still traveling?"
"Not recently. I've been... spending the winter with a friend. There have been... some changes."
"All for the better, I hope?"
"Definitely. How have you been?"
"Just fine. Not much has changed here, though."
"No."
"No... not at all..."
"Oh, that's... good, I mean, I'm glad that... things have been fine."
"What brings you all the way back here?"
"Well, it's a long story..."
Tony was the first member of their bewildered audience to recover the power of speech. "Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but... what in the world is going on here?"
The queen gasped as if noticing her other visitors for the first time. She smiled at Tony but looked warily at Hawkeye. "Friends of yours?" she asked Bruce.
"Yes." The four of them walked towards each other and Bruce extended his arm towards Stark. "This is..."
Tony didn't wait for his introduction. "Anthony Stark. My friends (and enemies) call me Tony, and might I say, it is an honor – an honor – to meet you, Your Highness." He gave her his most polite bow, took her right hand in his, and kissed the tips of her fingers.
"It's an honor to meet you, sir... I'm sure," she said with a gentle smirk of amusement at his overdone gallantry.
Tony was grinning from ear to ear as the pieces fell together. Struggling to contain his laughter, he put his arm around Banner's shoulders. Without moving his lips or teeth or turning his head to the side, he whispered in English, "Most beautiful woman in the world, huh?"
Also without moving his head to look at him, Bruce hissed through the same frozen, twisted smile, "One word, and you're dead." Without missing a beat, he spoke up in Norwegian, "And this is Agent Clint Barton."
This news seemed to relax her, for some inexplicable reason. Hawkeye gave her a respectful, silent bow, and she gave him a polite nod before addressing herself to them both. "Queen Elsa. Welcome to Arendelle." She then turned to Bruce and said, "Welcome back."
Tony expected to get a death glare for the mischievous look he gave Banner when he heard her tone, but he considered it a promising sign that it went ignored. Queen Elsa continued: "I'm sorry if my men startled you. I hope they treated you well. They were only doing their duty, but I hope they didn't cause you any trouble..."
"What? Oh, no, no trouble at all," Tony said flippantly. "Things couldn't possibly have gone better."
"If we're no longer under arrest, does that mean I can have my bow back, please, ma'am?" Hawkeye asked.
"Of course." Queen Elsa nodded at the captain, who waved for the soldier holding the confiscated weapons to hand them over. As Hawkeye took them, she added, "I hope you understand. They were just trying to protect me. You probably aren't aware of this, but you bear a striking resemblance to a famous witch hunter."
Hawkeye looked at her as incredulously as his expressionless face could look. "I've hunted a lot of things in my life, Your Highness, but witches aren't one of them. I didn't even know you had witches here to hunt."
"We don't." Her smile faded for the first time. "Just ignorant people who fear what they don't understand." She provided no explanation for that foreboding statement but simply smiled again and asked them, "But what does bring you to Arendelle?" The three strangers briefly looked amongst themselves, wondering where to begin, until she said, "Perhaps we should go somewhere we can talk in peace and you can explain properly."
"Excellent idea," said Tony.
"Follow me." They did, heading the rest of the way across the room to a little door between the dais and the wall. She nodded at a servant they passed, saying, "Carry on," who bowed and, from what they could see, went to give instructions to his staff and explanations to nosy guests. The gentleman they'd seen talking with her when they arrived stepped towards her. "Unexpected business, councilman," she said with another nod. "I'll be back soon."
"As you wish, madame," he said with a bow.
The captain, who had followed her as well, asked, "I will send four of my men for security, my Queen."
"That won't be necessary, captain."
"But... Your Majesty, your safety... I..."
The queen turned her back on him, raised her hand and blew over her fingers like she was blowing a kiss, causing a cloud of fog to spread from her fingers over the door, covering it in a sheet of ice with sinister-looking icicles hanging down and shooting up from the top and bottom edges of the frame. "You were saying?"
Tony was admiring the abstract pattern in the ice as the captain said sheepishly, "Yes, I know you can take care of yourself, my Queen. I merely thought..."
"Actually, please send two of your men to guard the door to the meeting hall in the East Wing off the gallery. I'd like a warning when the princess returns."
The captain bowed and said, "Yes, Your Majesty," as the queen melted the ice as quickly as she'd formed it.
"Nice work," Tony observed. Hawkeye even nodded in assent.
Queen Elsa turned and looked at them both in surprise, but it eventually faded, and she turned to Banner instead, who was smiling knowingly at her, as if to say, What did I tell you? "I see what you meant." Clearly, she hadn't expected them to be so unfazed by her powers. Tony assumed that meant they weren't the norm around here. Interesting.
A nearby servant opened the door and held it for them as the queen and Bruce walked out. Hawkeye followed right behind them, but Tony paused to shake his head and say, with more excitement than he'd felt in weeks, "I can't wait to hear the story behind this..."
