Twang! Twang! Twang!
Hawkeye didn't drop his arm until he'd emptied his entire quiver. Shooting an arrow wasn't exactly a strenuous task, yet he was panting and sweating as he walked forward to retrieve his weapons from the row of crowded bullseyes. He'd lost count of how many times he'd done this already, but he was sure it must have been a few hours since he'd asked Kristoff if there was a place he could practice alone for a while. He missed the challenges he could get out of the high-tech facilities at S.H.I.E.L.D., but Arendelle's soldiers' training rooms had space and targets, and that was good enough for his purposes.
Nothing cleared the head like archery. Whenever he pulled back on that bowstring, every part of his mind and body automatically focused on the task of aiming and shooting, locking out everything unrelated to that act. So it didn't clear the head as much as force you to clear your head in order to do it – either way, it was just what he needed.
Twang! Twang! Twang!
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Several icicles hurtled through the air from behind him, landing dead-center right alongside his arrows. He turned around to see Queen Elsa strolling towards him. "Impressive," he said before turning away and going to collect his arrows again.
"Likewise," he heard her say behind him.
As Hawkeye pulled his weapons free, the icicles dissolved into a fine powder that swirled up in the air and gathered together before disappearing. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon, Your Majesty," he said.
"I have a few free moments and wanted to see how things were going. Kristoff just filled me in; he said I would find you here. I hope you didn't mind me watching."
That was an odd statement to hear from someone who lived here, let alone the ruler of the land. "Not at all... I hope you didn't mind me practicing here for a while."
"You're more than welcome. I hope everything's going smoothly?"
"For the moment. We pretty much settled things for tomorrow and decided to take a break," he said as he rejoined her.
"Yes, I heard. Your friends didn't join you?
He deduced from the tone that when she heard he was down here, she didn't come looking for him. "No, when I left them, they were up in one of the rooms you lent us, talking."
"Oh." Her mild disappointment faded into mild surprise as she joked, "How rude of them."
Hawkeye shrugged and briefly returned her friendly grin. "I don't mind," he assured her as, sensing she wouldn't consider it impolite, he turned away from her and focused as he took aim again. "I... prefer to be alone."
"I know how that feels," he heard her say as he let the arrow fly and hit the target dead-center again. "You have a gift."
He smiled faintly in amusement at the irony of which one of them said that. "Not a gift, just experience."
"Is that the only reason you shoot as if it's missing that would be a challenge for you?" the queen asked him, equally amused. "It's like you have some sort of super vision."
"You could say that," he admitted, not arrogantly or boastfully but casually, as if he thought nothing of it. "I can see to shoot the pit out of a cherry two hundred yards away without damaging the fruit. That's how I got the nickname Hawkeye."
"Fitting," the queen observed. "I could sense there was something different about you."
Thinking of the other Avengers, the archer said dismissively, "There's something different about all of us," as he prepared for another shot.
"Yes, I know."
He fired and turned to the queen as he loaded an arrow with his other hand this time. "Really? How much do you know about Dr. Banner?"
"More than most people, I'm sure," she answered, calmly but firmly, confirming what he'd suspected.
"How fortunate for us that you were so readily willing to invite us in, Your Majesty..." Twang!
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Most people wouldn't be." Most people who knew about the Hulk would be far too afraid; she obviously knew his secret, yet she wasn't.
"Most people wouldn't be comfortable staying here," said the queen as she conjured up a swirl of snow and twirled it around her head and shoulders for a bit.
"Some, maybe, but not most – at least, not where we come from."
She shot an icicle from her arm at the same time he shot the arrow. Both landed on the same point at opposite angles. "So people in your world don't fear magic anymore?"
"Oh, no they fear it," he corrected her. "It's just that there's more people to fear..."
"That must be comforting," she said as she threw a ribbon of snow forward that froze into solid, sharp projectiles in mid-air before they hit their targets. "I've never met anyone with powers like mine."
"Where do they come from?"
"I've been asking myself the same question for over twenty years."
"There's a term in our world for people who are born with superhuman abilities that can't be explained; they're called mutants."
She held out her palm and watched some snow dance above it like a flame. "Any of them have ice powers?"
"I don't know them very well," Hawkeye explained as he fired three arrows at once. "The only person I've ever met with ice powers was..." He stopped as the memory of the first time he'd met a Frost Giant filled his mind again.
"Yes?"
He shook the images out of his head as he tried to aim again. "Never mind. I actually never saw him use them," he said truthfully.
Queen Elsa noticed his hesitancy. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Hawkeye tried to tell her as he lowered his bow and returned the arrow to the quiver.
He was sure he hadn't given anything away, but she looked at him suspiciously, like she could tell he was concealing something no matter how stoic he looked on the surface. "Yes, I can see that..." was all she said, clearly not believing him.
He stepped away from her and began collecting his arrows for the last time that day. "Really?" he asked without looking at her, genuinely curious, not only about how she could see through him but why she would care.
She followed him but kept a few paces behind. "I told you, I could sense something different about you. The way you talk, the way you look, the way you act towards your friends... it..."
"Made you feel uneasy?" he guessed, annoyed that being a quiet loner always made everyone automatically fear you.
"No, I was going to say, it... reminded me of the way I used to be." Forgetting the danger of showing her his face, he turned to look at her. "What happened? What have you been through?"
"How many agents?"
"Don't – don't do that to yourself, Clint."
She was studying his face, obviously aware that there was some painful past replaying in his mind. He knew that she had noticed him clench his jaw as his heart raced beyond his control for one second, that this was someone who knew all the tricks and whom you could conceal nothing from...
"Nothing worth mentioning," he said, stowing the last of his weapons on his back and turning to leave the room.
"I know how you feel." She said it too sincerely and sadly for him to dismiss it as patronizing rhetoric. "I know what it's like to think you have to..."
Not wanting to let her finish, for some reason, he stopped short and turned back to her. "Why are you so curious?" he demanded, since she obviously considered them equals.
Unfazed, she walked towards him and answered, "We have something in common, you and I. I'd like to help, if I can."
"Is that what you told Banner when you first met him?" Hawkeye didn't know what made him say it; clearly, he'd spent too much time with Stark today.
"Yes."
The fearless directness of her answer, as opposed to the blushing and awkward embarrassment he'd expected, made him feel about two inches tall; her unwavering serenity left a bigger impression on him than her crown or her powers had done. He looked into her eyes, daring him to deny what she'd claimed, and realized what she had apparently realized about him from the start – that beneath her calm, quiet demeanor was someone who had survived something terrible and traumatizing but refused to let it control her anymore. Someone who was brave enough to confront the pain of the past. He suddenly wanted to ask what she had been through, but all he did was bow and say, "Forgive me, Your Majesty. I thank you for your concern and your offer, but I'm sure you'll understand if I say I like to work things out on my own."
"I understand," she said with a nod.
She was right – they did have a lot in common, which was why he could see that she knew there would be no point in pressing him any further; she knew how she would react if someone did that to her. Again. "Thank you," he said.
"I'm sorry for prying," she said next. "It's none of my business; I only wanted you to know..."
He wouldn't have interrupted, but her voice trailed off, allowing him to nod and say, "I know, I know. But, please, don't worry if I keep to myself. Like I said, I prefer to be alone."
"Everyone needs to be alone sometimes," the queen agreed. "But, after a while, it can get pretty..." She flicked a small mist of snow into the air again. "... cold."
"Well, the cold never bothered me anyway." Hawkeye bowed once last time before turning and marching out of the training room, not noticing the curious way her eyes followed him as he opened and closed the doors firmly behind him.
"I was hiding out in Norway when some mugger jumped me and attacked a woman. Next thing I knew, I was shivering on a mountainside covered in snow, surrounded by a cage of giant icicles, and heard a woman asking me if I was okay."
"Queen Elsa?"
"Yeah." Stark and Banner were helping themselves to tea from a tray when Barton showed up. "She said he'd scared some ice harvesters something fierce, and she'd gone to investigate, found him, and managed to trap him."
"Wow," Stark said in awe and admiration, having seen the kind of power it took to bring down the Hulk. "Who do you think would win in a fight – her or Thor?" Banner sighed in annoyance, which seemed to make his friend reconsider. "You're right – it would depend on which world they were on..." As Barton finished removing his wrist guards and reached forward to help himself to a roll from the tray, Stark added, "How about Elsa or Romanoff?"
"Would depend on the weapons, right?" Hawkeye guessed sarcastically.
"Come on, that's not what you're supposed to say," Stark groaned.
Bruce leaned back and drank his tea as Hawkeye glared at Stark and said, "You're right. I'm supposed to ask, when are we leaving?"
"I thought we settled this."
"We've been here too long already. We're dragging our feet; things weren't supposed to go this slow."
"What's the matter? Too quiet for ya'? Need some action? Dying of boredom?"
"I'm not the only one."
Bruce shook his head. "I'm fine, really."
"Fine," Hawkeye conceded, "but I can't wait 'til we get out of here and things get moving again."
"Boy, what did Elsa do to you?" Tony joked, but he caught Barton's fleeting reaction and repeated, seriously, "Wow... what did she do to you?"
"It's not her, it's this place," Hawkeye insisted.
"Tell me about it," Bruce agreed with a shiver, and Hawkeye threw him a quick look of thanks for helping him change the subject.
The others couldn't deny he had a point; they all remembered what their journey through town with Kristoff had been like a few hours ago – the downcast, annoyed, and even hostile looks they'd gotten from passersby and shopkeepers as they stocked up on the supplies they'd need for the new trip they'd had to plan. Even the few people who greeted them normally were subdued by their neighbors' gloomy attitudes. All they had managed to learn, however, was that some sufferers were affected more strongly than others – some looked at them and the world with cynical apathy, others with disgust and loathing. Tony had been about to start asking questions before Kristoff told him it was pointless – they'd been trying to get answers for two months to no avail. Whatever it was, it worked fast; a sentry who had smiled at them as they'd left just groaned in annoyance when they'd returned. Bruce and Tony had been mulling it over, bouncing theories off each other, ever since they'd got back.
"Besides the queen being able to shoot ice out of her fingertips, did you notice anything unusual last time?" Tony asked Bruce now. "Even something small that didn't mean anything at the time?"
"I've already seen more of this place this visit than I did last time," Bruce told him. "After we talked for a while, Elsa... the queen brought me down here, gave me a room for the night, and I left the next morning – wasn't time to see much."
"That was nice of her," Stark mused aloud. "What did you two talk about?"
"The difficulty of controlling powers that are fueled by emotions," Banner said nonchalantly before taking another drink of his tea – no point in holding back once they knew. Maybe now he'd even be satisfied.
Taken aback, Stark said, "Oh," clearly not prepared for such a straightforward answer.
"She's the one who taught me my secret."
"The... 'I'm always angry' thing?"
Bruce nodded. "Yeah. I owe her a lot..."
With uncharacteristic gravity, Stark replied, "Guess we all do..." and shook his head in shame before adding, "I'm so sorry."
"For what, constantly prying into my business?"
"No... for getting it so wrong." Smiling contentedly, Tony drained the rest of his tea in one drink as Bruce's look of relief vanished. "Well, now we absolutely have to get to the bottom of this."
Bruce didn't have the courage to ask what he was referring to. The question evidently hadn't occurred to Agent Barton, who simply said, "Since we're here 'til tomorrow anyway, we should go out and investigate more thoroughly tonight."
"What happened to, 'It's probably nothing?' " Stark asked him with a disturbing glint in his eye.
"I said 'probably'," the suspect replied, glaring at his opponent. "We need more information."
"I agree," Tony said with a nod. "So what are we waiting for?" He turned and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Hawkeye called after him.
Stark turned around and said, as if confused, "Uh, to get ready for dinner?"
"Dinner?" his two teammates repeated.
"You're not seriously going to that?" Barton added.
"Have to," Stark said, as if it couldn't possibly be any more obvious. "We need to gather information, remember? Besides, it would be a shame to waste those clothes the servants brought up for us."
"What kind of information do you expect to find there?" Bruce asked him. "The queen can't tell you anything."
Tony smiled knowingly at his friend. "I'm sure she can't. Her sister, on the other hand, is an entirely different story." With that, he left.
Bruce hung his head as Hawkeye told him, "You're doomed."
"He's not gonna learn anything," Bruce said hopefully.
"Maybe we'll get lucky, and he'll actually hear something useful that can tell us what we're looking for. The possible threat to international relations aside, it might be a good idea having him keep an eye out there for any clues while I look around town." On that note, he left, too.
"Yeah, but who's gonna keep an eye on him?" Bruce said to himself once he was alone. As much as he believed that Stark would make it the most awkward nightmare if he went, the prospect of leaving Stark to his own devices, with no way of knowing what ideas the princess would put in his head, was even more terrifying.
He never expected coming back to Arendelle to be this complicated. Even though he knew Elsa was right about how tonight might give them a chance to talk alone, he'd had no intention of taking her up on her offer. First of all, it was too dangerous. There would be too many people. Knowingly and willingly walking into a crowd went against every instinct he'd developed since the accident; a room full of strangers who didn't know his secret would be even more nervewracking than walking onto the Helicarrier.
He couldn't help wondering if Elsa would share his reservations if he asked her. Not that he would get the chance. Therein lay the second problem with seeing her tonight: he wouldn't be able to act naturally around her in front of everyone. He couldn't treat the woman who had helped him so much like a nameless foreign traveler to whom she meant nothing would be expected to.
Why not? You only met her once – what does she mean to you? He honestly didn't know the answer. In order to find out, he resolved to go.
Hans had never been able to understand Arendelle's unique custom of permitting its royal family and nobility to mingle so closely with the common people. He knew that it had started two or three generations ago, which was why it was so shocking when the previous king and queen closed the gates and seemed to put an end to it, and that the practice had even spread to some of their allies like Corona, but he was positive he wasn't the only one who found it peculiar. The scene he was now watching in the mirror never could have occurred in the Southern Isles: the castle dining hall, with a long table set along one side for the royal family and their most honored guests, the rest of the room full of small, circular tables for the less prestigious guests to gather and eat at their own leisure, and waiters and servants passing to and fro amongst them all, smiling, laughing, and even stopping to chat briefly with those they waited on!
Yes, it certainly was the queerest set-up for a royal banquet he had ever seen, even if the queen hadn't been occasionally shooting blasts of snow into the air, like icy fireworks, that dissolved in midair as they fell, or granting requests to quickly make a new, little ice sculpture shaped like some building or animal and levitating it down the table to its commissioner, or instantly cooling off any soup or hot chocolate that was too hot to just the right temperature. Amazingly, she sat at the head of the main table, with the princess and her husband on her right, and the guest of honor (tonight, the new Duke of Weselton) on her left – you would think they would have done away with that point of etiquette as well!
"Oh, Elsa, how do you expect to maintain your people's respect if you don't keep them in their place?" Well, it was a lesson she would have to learn the hard way...
A fresh snowfall had started by the time Hawkeye reached the town square. He had expected to find the streets even emptier than they had been earlier in the day. To his surprise, they were actually more crowded, with people going from door to door and shop to shop like the snow, ice, and wind made no difference to them. He would have been less surprised if they were complaining or grumbling about the weather, but they weren't, which was even more bizarre.
He stepped up to a cart and purchased a bag of hot chestnuts. The vendor, who wasn't wearing gloves or a hat or scarf, took his gold pieces and counted his change like a robot. Hawkeye stood and looked at him for a second, trying to determine what was different about him, before the man gruffly told him to move on and pushed his cart away right through the snow, not even bothering to aim for the paths that had been cleared.
A few feet away, two young boys were bent over something they were examining on the ground. Once Hawkeye strode closer to them, he could see, without being able to explain how or why he could, that one was affected and the other wasn't. The former swept a layer of snow away from a patch of ice with his bare hand and began pounding on the ice with a rock. "Amazing," he said. "See how strong it is?"
"Uh, yeah, sure..." his confused friend mumbled, obviously not finding the subject very riveting. "Come on, it's freezing out here, let's go inside."
"You go, I'm not finished here. Look at these patterns..." And he kept probing and analyzing the ice as if it was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen.
"I said leave me alone!" Hawkeye turned around to see a young woman pulling her arm away from a young, distressed man and storming off.
The poor fellow followed after her. "Please don't go out now, dear, it's so cold..."
"Don't be ridiculous, it's just fine," she insisted, breathing out a frosty mist with every word. Her beau tried to brush some snowflakes out of her hair, but she slapped his hand away. "Get off me!" She then seemed to forget he was there as she pointed at a single flake as it tumbled down past them. "Aren't they beautiful? Look at how perfectly the lines and angles combine to form each one – so symmetrical, so flawless..."
Hawkeye stepped aside as an old man passed him, but the man growled at him anyway, "Watch where you're going," as if he'd hit him.
Another man coming the opposite direction, evidently thinking the warning was meant for him, retorted, "You watch where you're going! You've got no business here anyway!"
"Why don't you stay out of my way?! Confounded people! Man can't even walk in peace!"
Hawkeye left the two to argue and walked on until he saw a man about his own age leaning against a wall outside what looked like a pub, alone except for a wolfish-looking dog, like a Husky or a Malamute, whining next to him for attention. Hawkeye ventured asking him, "You lost, sir?" The lonely dog barked and licked his hand in greeting.
"No."
"I'd get home then, if I were you – getting pretty cold out here," he suggested, petting the dog, so much friendlier than his master.
"Feels fine to me."
"Really? What would you say..."
"Get away from me." The man reached out and gave him one strong shove. "Leave me alone."
Since he could see he would be no more help than anyone else, the archer complied, but the grim feeling those affected seemed to exude didn't entirely wear off until he was a good distance away. He was just reaching the corner when a woman with a basket full of bread slipped and fell on some ice. He raced forward to help her up. "You all right, ma'am?"
"Oh, yes, sir, thank you," she answered with a grateful smile as they refilled her basket. "Thank you very much." She curtseyed to him once before moving on.
He watched her walk away, trying to figure out what was different about her than everyone he'd just seen, but on the surface, she looked the same as those who were affected. It didn't make any sense; if this strange plague left any visible sign, however slight, he would have been able to see it. If there was magic at work here, it left absolutely no trace that the eye could detect, although some other sense he couldn't identify apparently could.
He was pulled out of his musings by a voice demanding, "What are you staring at?"
"Nothing," Hawkeye told him honestly, instinctively gripping his bowshaft with his right hand. Several sticks came loose from the bundle of wood the man was carrying on his back and spilled on the ground, but he simply kicked them out of his way and stomped off as if picking them up wasn't worth being in the presence of another human being for a few extra seconds.
The cart the man must have bought his wood from was still parked in the street a few yards behind, the thinly-clad driver handing a few logs out to a woman bundled up from head to toe. "Oh, thank you, sir," she said brightly as she handed him a small pouch. "I thought my children would freeze tonight."
The salesman stopped in mid motion to examine a small log. "Look at these rings! The space between these two suggests..." And he rambled on about the patterns he saw in the wood while his customer vigorously rubbed her arms, trying to keep warm.
One thing was certain: those affected were not upset by the cold. If anything, their affliction appeared to give them immunity to, if not an affinity for, it. The colder it got, and the more snow and ice in the air, the more active and aware they became, as if they now thrived on the cold instead of the sun. They didn't seem to feel the cold any more than they could feel pleasure or compassion.
"Frozen hearts..." Hawkeye whispered to himself. And his only clue to the cause was that it liked the cold…
All the beauty of snow and ice without the cold – no wonder the people loved it when the queen put on a show with her powers. She put on a grand display as they entered the Great Hall, like a white and silver light show, wrapping it up with a flourish when she reached the dais at the head of the room, whipping streaks of snow rapidly around the ceiling. When the dancing began, she left a flurry of snowflakes falling gently from the ceiling that melted before they fell low enough to touch you. So far, it was shaping up to be the most interesting party Tony Stark had ever attended.
When the music began, the dancers didn't form two lines that moved up and down the room as he'd half-expected but broke up into myriad groups and pairs. Tony stood aside and observed for a while before joining a group for a quadrille, keeping his eye open for when the princess and her husband took a break, which, judging by her limitless supply of energy, would not likely be any time soon. Not that the other revelers seemed any less excited; it was almost impossible to believe the mood could be so festive and lively in here and so dreary and dismal out there. But according to Queen Elsa, those affected chose to stay away. Why? What was different about those who had come to celebrate with her? He couldn't see any difference between those he saw now and those he'd met earlier. He wondered if JARVIS might have been able to find something, but, then again, his system hadn't been programmed to be compatible with magic... Maybe they should have brought Jane Foster along for this mission; she was more comfortable with magic than any scientist he knew. Maybe it was a woman thing...
When the next dance ended, he decided to ask Banner if he'd noticed anything. Once he'd made his way over to where the latter had been standing, he began to think he had. "Hey, you all right?" he asked upon seeing the troubled expression on his face.
Bruce jumped at the sound and then went back to looking all around the room, including above them, unable to shake a very familiar and very uncomfortable feeling. "I feel like we're being watched."
Tony looked around but could see no one staring at them. "I... think you have it backwards."
"Somebody's watching us. Trust me, I know – I've had years of practice."
"And you've let it go to your head." Not wanting his friend to waste the night paranoid about being discovered, Tony tried to tell him, "You don't want people to stare, you've got to stop acting like you're at a funeral. Loosen up. Relax. Enjoy the party."
"I second that!" Princess Anna rushed over to them, her husband panting behind her. He got to stop and catch his breath as she curtseyed and tried to say as formally as she could, "Good evening, gentlemen. So glad you could join us! Hope you're having a marvelous time?"
The two men bowed politely to her as Bruce answered, "A great time, thank you." It was true. He'd managed to keep mostly to himself, except for Stark, faking ignorance of language to avoid much interaction with anyone. So far, the evening had been blissfully uneventful, and he was actually willing to believe that he would get through the night with no alarms or problems.
Meanwhile, Stark answered her, "Best time I've ever spent in Arendelle, my lady," causing her to giggle. "Everything's great – the food, the music..."
"Thank you, I..." the princess started to say, but then she jerked her head around as the musicians began a new song – not slow but not very fast paced, either, rather like the tempo of the Wedding Dance. "Oh, this is my favorite song!" she squealed, grasping her husband's arm in both her hands.
"Whoah, I don't think the feeling's returned to my legs yet, Anna," the exhausted Kristoff warned her.
"Just one more! Please, I can't miss this one!"
"Come on, you've got to let me pace myself; I don't have your energy," he claimed as she tugged on his arm.
"Oh, well, if you can't keep up..." she said tauntingly.
He didn't take the bait. "That's right, I can't," he said as he pulled his arm free. "Deal with it."
"Oh..." the deprived girl moaned in disappointment.
"A-hem!" Tony cleared his throat loudly. "Um, pardon me, sir, but if you don't mind..." He bowed again and held out his hand. "May I have the honor, princess?"
"Oh, I..." The young couple exchanged one happy look and a shrug of, Why not?,before the princess took his hand. "The honor's all mine, sir." As he led her to the dance floor, Tony winked once over his shoulder at Banner, who was looking away as if trying to pretend he couldn't see them.
"You said you were going to fix that roof today!"
"What's the point in fixing anything in this worthless house?!"
Hawkeye could hear the argument all the way across the street. "You built it, not me!"
"Fine – I'll fix it when you can make me a decent dinner!"
"Well, what did you expect me to get in this town?! We never should have stayed here!"
"You're the one who refused to move! Don't mind us all getting killed by that wicked witch!"
"Well, why don't some of you big, strong men do something about that?! When is someone going to get rid of her?!"
The two voices stopped arguing, unless you counted trying to outdo each other in the insults and curses they heaped on the wicked witch who was apparently responsible for all the problems in the world. Hawkeye could see two girls illuminated by the single lighted window on the second floor, huddled close together as if trying to protect each other from the vicious sounds from downstairs. What looked like the vines of dead roses clinging to the walls of their house seemed to become gradually, completely covered in a thick layer of frost right before his very eyes.
Beating around the bush was never Tony's style. "My Lady..."
"Please, call me Anna."
If those were her orders… "Anna... I know girls have a code about this sort of thing, but, if you don't mind my asking..." She followed his gaze over to where Banner stood talking with Kristoff. "... what happened between him and your sister last time he was here?"
"I was hoping you could tell me," she answered as he spun her around. "Two years ago, Elsa went into the mountains looking for some terrible monster the ice harvesters said they'd seen. I wanted to go with her, but, of course, she wouldn't let me. She was gone for hours, and when she finally came back after dark, he was with her, and she said the monster was gone, but she never said what she did or how she saved him, and she gave him a room for the night, and he left the next day."
"She said she saved him?"
"Yeah, she... well, actually, she never said that, exactly. She never said anything about what happened up there. Whenever I asked, she just said she wouldn't discuss it..."
The way her face fell made Tony say comfortingly, "Maybe she was trying to protect you."
"From what? What was that? Is it from your world? Have you seen it before? Do you know?"
If he couldn't lie to a room full of strangers about the identity of Iron Man, he certainly couldn't lie to a young girl about what her sister had found one day. "I have no idea what happened that day," he finally said, "but I am glad your sister was there to help my friend."
"I am, too. I just hate it when she keeps secrets from me. She kept her powers secret from me my entire life!"
That was definitely news. "Well, don't hold it against her. Where I come from, that's actually a pretty common practice. Lots of people with special powers try to keep their identity a secret. To protect themselves and their loved ones."
"That's what Elsa said, but when she did that, it didn't exactly work out..."
"It never does. Personally, I was never a fan of it. Faking reality in any way whatsoever never solves anything – only makes things worse."
"You can say that again…" Anna looked particularly bitter as she whispered, "I hate liars."
Arendelle had a lot of inns that seemed mostly dark, quiet, and empty, as if it was usually far more bustling than it had become recently. The Duke and the rest of the foreign guests must be staying at the castle. As Hawkeye passed one of the few taverns that actually seemed to have some lodgers, he could hear that the first floor (no doubt the bar) was packed with men who were affected, railing against the queen:
"We're all doomed!"
"She'll be the death of us all!"
"He was right!"
"It's madness!"
"Monster!"
"We should have listened to him all along!"
"We have to stop her!"
"Somebody kill that witch!"
"It's not that she doesn't trust you..." Tony assured the princess.
"Let me guess – it's that it's not her secret to tell, right?"
By the expression on her face, Tony judged that his smile confirmed what Elsa had no doubt been forced to tell her a million times. "Unfortunately, it's not mine, either. Don't worry – you're not the one she's trying to protect this time."
Anna smiled as they dodged another couple that was slightly out of step. "Well, what can you tell me?"
"Depends on what you can tell me."
"Is he married?"
"No."
"Is he a criminal?"
"Absolutely not."
"Is he under an evil spell?"
"… … … In your language… I can't say."
"What was he doing here?"
"Got lost."
"What's he said about my sister?"
"Absolutely nothing. I could tell he had someone on his mind, but he refused to ever tell me anything about her. Either too painful or too precious to share. Interesting, isn't it?" They both smirked, drawing the same conclusions from his persistent silence. "What about your sister? She never told you anything about the monster, but she ever say anything about him?"
"Nope – she was too busy worrying about him. Never told me why she missed him so much..."
"What are you doing out here, stranger?"
The soldier lifted the pole, holding the lantern at the end above both of them, and Hawkeye recognized him as one of the soldiers who had arrested them earlier in his zeal to protect his queen. There was something different about him now.
"Just stretching my legs, sir," the agent said slowly, examining him intently, trying to pinpoint the change. It was the eyes; he couldn't say what, but there was no mistaking that something about them – or in them – looked different.
The soldier pushed him aside like a piece of trash that had blown in his path, no longer concerned about the safety of his kingdom or doing his job, just annoyed by the sight of another person. "Well, move along. Sick of you troublemakers, ruining everything."
Hawkeye didn't move but called after him, "You feeling all right, sir?"
Without turning around, the man yelled, "Mind your own business, pest!" and went back to marching his patrol like a zombie.
That's what they were all becoming – zombies, freezing from the inside out, and the only symptom a strange look in the eyes. Just like his last brush with mental magic...
Zombies, frozen hearts, Frost Giants... how sure was Selvig that Loki was dead?
It was just after that unpleasant thought sent a chill up his spine that he looked around him with the sudden, inexplicable, but unshakable feeling that he was being followed.
"Thank you for the dance, my lady."
"My pleasure, sir," Anna said happily as Tony kissed her hand after they rejoined their other companions.
"If you'll excuse me." Something about the wink Stark gave her disturbed Bruce even more than the fact that he walked off, leaving the three of them alone.
"Have you seen Elsa?" Anna asked Kristoff.
"Been talking with those dignitaries I can never understand for the past two dances," her husband informed her. "She hasn't danced all night, but it looks the Duke finally wore her down."
Anna looked at where he was pointing and saw her sister making her way to the dance floor. "Yeah, it would be rude if she didn't dance with him at all the last night of his stay," she said, as if she detested whoever made that rule. She then turned abruptly to their visitor and asked, "Do you dance, Dr. Banner?"
"What?" he instinctively replied. "Uh, no, not really, I... I don't know any of your..."
"Oh, I'd be happy to teach you." And she held her hand out to him as if they were old friends. "Would you do a lady the honor? Please?"
He turned to Kristoff, his stunned, wide eyes asking, Can she do that? Kristoff smirked back at him; Bruce supposed rank, well, outranked gender when it came to engaging a partner for a dance here. As if Anna ever struck him as the type to care about what was proper... "I-I couldn't..."
"No, come on – I insist."
He felt like she had invited him to jump off a cliff, his mind and body recoiled from the suggestion with such horror. She didn't know who she was talking to, what forces she was messing with, and he couldn't explain the danger he would put her in just by touching her.
"No, really, I'm sorry, I..." No believable excuse came to him. Feeling like a prisoner of war being dragged to interrogation, he looked frantically between husband and wife until Kristoff nudged his shoulder and gestured towards the dance floor, telling him to just get it over with, it would be less painful this way.
"May we?" the princess entreated him again.
Steeling himself like he was about to face a firing squad – before the accident, that is – he cleared his throat and said, "We may." He held his hand out to her and breathed a sigh of relief when she grasped it and led him away, his reason desperately trying to tell his fears that his touch wasn't going to hurt her.
To test his theory, Hawkeye left the town and walked all the way down the harbor to the deserted, rocky shore of the fjord. The feeling of being watched didn't go away. He fitted an arrow on the string and scanned the area for the spy. He could see no one, but there was plenty of cover around here. He walked back to the docks but could still see nothing suspicious. He was trained too well and his senses too precise not to recognize the difference between imagination and certainty. Someone was definitely watching him, but he couldn't see them anywhere, and if he couldn't see it, it wasn't there. He reflexively adjusted his gaze to look for small surveillance cameras or microphones before he remembered this place didn't have any – not the kind he was used to, at least.
"More magic?" he said to himself as he walked along, keeping his eyes peeled and his arrow ready to fire. He silently thanked Kristoff for talking them into getting some of those crossbows earlier and wished he'd thought to bring one with him tonight – it worked better for situations where you had to keep your weapon constantly level like you were looking out for the Punjab lasso of the Phantom of the Opera.
"So where's the phantom?" he whispered. "Where are you hiding?" Forget about sight lines or vantage points – where was the best place to hide? There had been no one amongst the rocks at the edge of the fjord, but what about across it, in the woods? He headed for the bridge they had crossed that morning. No footprints in the fresh snow. In town?
That tavern... What had he heard them say? "He was right!" "We should have listened to him all along!" Who was "he"? What were they up to? Still on his guard, Hawkeye made his way back and stood across the street, his bow lowered but his arrow still notched, ready to mount on his shoulder at a second's notice.
In a small, windowless room on the second floor, Hans looked at where the man in the mirror had stopped and gasped in shock. It couldn't be a coincidence. "How did he know?"
Neither of the two men heard the voice say, "He sees too much," right before the wind picked up, tossing the fallen and falling snowflakes wildly about, launching them through the air like buckshot.
"So, what did you and Kristoff talk about?"
"Uh... he says he's really worried about his friends."
"I know – it started with some of the ice harvesters; they were the first to catch it."
"I'm sorry."
"Why won't they just tell us what's going on?"
"Maybe they can't. They might not understand what's going on any more than we do." Talking with Princess Anna was easier than Bruce expected, and made it harder to dwell on his worries and anxieties about the situation.
"This kind of thing ever happen in your world?" she asked him.
"The severe cold weather, yes; the rest of it, no."
"Where are you from anyway?"
He could see no danger in telling her the truth, although he doubted it would mean much to her. "Across the ocean – it's called the United States of America."
"You came all the way across the ocean two years ago?"
"No. I was... living in Norway then, just over the mountains in the south."
"What were you doing there?"
He tried to stall with the old, "It's complicated."
Anna smirked as if she'd fully expected such an answer. "I thought so. Does Elsa even know?"
"Why would you..."
"Because, you know, she never told me anything about how you two met or where you came from or why you had to leave so suddenly. We get a lot of stranded travelers needing help here – what castle doesn't? – but never anyone that mysterious."
"It wasn't by choice," said Bruce, not looking her in the eye.
"I figured. What were you running from?"
He certainly hadn't been prepared for that. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"What if I guess?"
He actually grinned at that. "Sounds like you have a theory already."
"I'm not the only one. Kristoff said he thought you were a fugitive hiding from the law, but I told him Elsa would never help someone like that."
"Thank you."
"My maid thought you might be a long-lost cousin who everyone thought was dead and had escaped after being held for years in an enemy dungeon, but I checked, and we don't have any of those."
"Must be good to know."
"And she told me that Elsa's maid thought you had amnesia, but I said there was no reason to keep that a secret."
"Good point."
"Personally, I almost thought for sure you were a runaway slave."
Define 'slave', Bruce thought, but what he said aloud was, "Fortunately, no."
Anna smiled in obvious relief. "I hoped that wasn't it."
"You're right about one thing – I was on the run when I met your sister, and I've been running since then. I'm sorry I can't tell you more," he said, and he meant it. "Trust me, it's better if you don't know." She shook her head and grinned in a strange way. "What is it?"
"You sound just like Elsa sounded when she..." Her expression softened. "Never mind. I'm sorry. You must have... really been through something," she said sympathetically.
The look in her eyes forced him to answer truthfully, "Yes... but it's not so bad anymore."
"I can't imagine what it must be, but... I hope you're all right."
"Better than I've been in years," he said with a smile.
"Good – Elsa's been so worried about you."
"You must be mistaken. There's no reason for her to worry about me."
The princess didn't seem to realize he was being sincere, as she grinned mischievously at him before joking, "You're probably right. I mean, how bad could it be? It's not like you're cursed with dangerous, uncontrollable powers like..." He didn't know if her brain caught up with what she was saying or if his own face gave him away, but her words came to an abrupt halt as she looked intently up at him. His fear was too great for him to even try to think of something to say, so he stood there facing her until she finally asked in a much different tone, "That's it, isn't it? So that's why she... No wonder Elsa misses you so much."
It felt like he looked down at the floor for a long time before he raised his head and said, "I don't have powers like your sister's..."
She saw right through his double-meaning. "You don't have to tell me. It doesn't matter. I understand," she said simply, giving him a reassuring smile. "It's okay. I'm not afraid."
"You would be if you..."
"If Elsa's not afraid, I'm not. I trust you."
The music ended, and she curtseyed to him and walked away without another word. He stared after her until she stopped to give her sister a brief hug and a wink, followed by a glance in his direction. Before Anna turned away again, she nodded at him in a way that reminded him of the way he used to nod in approval to students when they passed a test.
The wind stung every inch of exposed skin like a swarm of wasps. There was no chance anyone in control of their faculties would show themselves in this. Once again wishing he'd chosen a weapon that would have left one of his hands free to shield his face, Hawkeye stepped into the street and began making his way back to the castle. The wind seemed to change direction at the same time, blowing the snow right into his face. He turned his head sideways against the blast, struggling to hold his arrow straight on the string.
Between the decreased visibility and the difficulty of shooting straight should it come to that, he felt extremely vulnerable. Tonight was one night he wouldn't have minded having another agent to back him up. He had to admit he would have liked to have a competent partner like Natasha watching his back right now.
Natasha... he bet she would have figured out the mystery here hours ago; it was her specialty – one of many. He grinned as he recalled the blizzard they'd battled in that last night in Budapest. It really was too bad they hadn't been assigned to this mission together, too. He found himself actually wishing he was working with her on this right now – they made a great team. How would they have handled this together?
As he imagined how this assignment might have gone with the Black Widow by his side, the snowflakes seemed to part before him, leaving a clear path in the storm. He eventually reached the castle gates cold but unscathed.
Stark didn't reappear after Kristoff and his wife returned to the dance floor. Grateful to find himself alone, Bruce remained standing with the onlookers, munching on some tiny, chocolate-covered pastry he'd grabbed from a passing waiter's tray. It wasn't until Elsa looked over at him, catching his eye, that he realized that he'd been watching her ever since the others had left him alone. He returned her smile, wondering if she had noticed before he did and, if so, how he should feel about that.
He became aware of something else as he watched her and her partner go through the motions of the dance – namely, that he wasn't the only one watching her. He tried to tell himself he was imagining it, but from where he was standing, the eyes of every young man in the room seemed to be fixated on her. He wondered how far the intentions went that lay behind their longing gazes; if they were more interested in her rank, her beauty, or something else; and if any of them had been given more reason to hope than the others.
The discovery was too unsurprising to think much about after he'd noticed it, however; finally getting to see Elsa in her role as queen was far more interesting. It was the first time he'd ever watched her function in this environment for more than a few minutes, and he expected to see a different side of her, but he could detect no change, no act, no stiffness, no phoniness, no show put on for the crowd. She was the same woman he had met that day on the mountainside, right down to her wardrobe. Even her hair was braided in the exact same way. He realized he'd never seen her with her hair down and wondered how it would look...
He was still watching her when the dance ended and she dismissed her partner with a half-bow. The obviously disappointed man kissed her hand and walked off reluctantly. Bruce found he wasn't surprised when she started walking in his direction. He bowed politely when she reached him, as anyone would be expected to. "My Queen."
They both smiled at his feigned formality. "Doctor," Elsa replied in the same neutral tone, which became more teasing as she asked, "I hope my sister didn't give you a hard time."
"Relatively, no."
"What did she want?"
He shrugged. "Just to tell me her conclusions about a certain mystery."
"She did?" She sounded playfully indignant and nervous. "What else did she tell you?"
"More than I could tell her, I'm afraid. And, yet, I think she learned more than I would have preferred..."
"She means well. She can just be a little... overwhelming at times."
They both laughed – not insultingly. "Yes, she's very... enthusiastic, but she's a nice girl. You're lucky to have a sister like her."
They both turned and looked at where the redhead was spinning around with her husband. "Indeed, I am," said Elsa. She moved to stand next to him. "How has the rest of your evening been?"
"Very fine, thank you," he answered as they both looked straight ahead at the room before them.
"You haven't seemed to be enjoying yourself very much."
"Oh, I am, I assure you, I'm just... I'm not a big fan of parties."
"I know what you mean. They used to make me so anxious. I agonized over it for days in advance, terrified that I was going to mess up and ruin everything."
"And cause a disaster beyond repair," he added. They both smiled, appreciating finding someone so sympathetic. "You make it look so easy now, though."
"It just took some practice." Her altered tone indicated they were now referring to something entirely different.
"I've been... practicing something new myself," Bruce told her as they kept their faces pointed straight ahead.
"I'm glad to hear it. For how long?"
"Since a few months after..." He could sense someone staring at them out of the corner his eye. He turned to his right, but the man and woman quickly turned their heads away.
Elsa cleared her throat; he assumed she was able to fill in what he'd been about to say. "I hope things were going well after... at the time."
"Well, not at first. I..." As he was about to get specific, he became keenly aware of how many ears were nearby and stopped.
"Nothing serious, I hope?" Elsa asked, looking worried.
"Nothing more than usual. But it's under control now."
He could hear her eyes light up. "You, too?"
Some bystanders on their other side turned to observe the queen and her strange companion now, but Bruce tried to ignore them. "More or less. Thanks to you."
"Thanks to me?" Their nearest neighbors were starting to whisper now. Elsa turned and glared at them, causing some to fall silent and the rest to move along. "I don't understand."
"It's a long story," said Bruce, looking aside at people who continued to stop and glance and try to pick up a few words before moving on. He couldn't tell if it was because he was committing some unforgivable breach of etiquette, because they were just curious, or because they were envious he was monopolizing the queen's company.
"I can imagine... it's been such a long time."
"Feels that way, doesn't it?"
"I've missed you."
It took him a long time to process her words. Eventually, he found the courage to turn to face her and respond: "I've missed you, too." He could feel their audience's eyes boring into him and turned away. "This isn't how I expected to see you again."
"Nor I."
"Is there any way we can be less conspicuous?"
"Just one..."
He knew what she was getting at. "I don't have much practice with this, remember?"
"What better time to start than now?"
"That would be a big risk for me," Bruce said gravely.
"I thought it was under control."
"Doesn't make the fear go away, does it?"
"No," she admitted with a sigh of empathy. "But you can't give into it."
He smiled again as he asked, "You have to let it go, right?"
"Exactly."
He looked at her and slowly raised his hand. "I don't know if I can."
She held her own hand out to him and said encouragingly, "You'll never know if you don't try."
"I want to try," he decided and, with a deep breath, he took her hand in his own. It was the first time they touched, and he was surprised at how easy it was. When he raised his head and looked up into her eyes, he knew that she understood the fear he was struggling against right now, that it had been her own fear, and there was no reason to hide it from her. She waited patiently, letting him take the time he needed to realize nothing had happened to her when he touched her. She was safe. She was all right.
When the music for the next dance began, she told him confidently, "It'll be fine. Just follow my lead."
Reverting back to the teasing tone from earlier, he bowed and said, "As you wish, Your Highness," and walked with her to take their place in the set.
It didn't take long before he noticed that, even though he still had a vague sense of being watched, no one was focused on them so intently anymore. They blended in now. They were doing what everyone else was doing, and they were surrounded by people too occupied to overhear them.
At first, he was too distracted by the surrealness of the situation, by the feel of his hand in hers, on her shoulder, around her waist, to say anything. Elsa was the first to speak: "Still afraid?"
"No, just shocked," he confessed. "When I came here, I never expected to end up here like this."
"Neither did I," Elsa said before her voice dropped. "I thought I'd never see you again."
"Neither did I," he echoed, "but I hoped I would. So I could thank you."
"Thank me?"
"For what you taught me." He took a deep breath before plunging in. "About how to control it. It took a few months, but I finally decided to give what you said a try. I ran off where I couldn't hurt anyone and just let it go. I let myself get angry. I unleashed everything I'd spent years trying to hold back."
"And what happened?"
"I got used to it – just like you predicted. After I stopped concealing it, my body got so used to being angry that it stopped reacting so easily. Before, I tried to stop myself from ever getting angry, from ever feeling anything, but you were right; that only made it harder – impossible, even. Now, I don't fight it; I've accepted it. I let myself feel; deep down, on some level, I'm always angry, and, since my heart can't tell the difference any more, it doesn't react unless it gets really bad. I'll never be able to completely control it, but it's so much easier now. I don't have to worry every second that something's going to set it off. I've been able to live, work, help people. All because of what I learned from you."
Elsa blinked and shook her head as she tried to take it all in. "I... never expected what I said to leave such an impact."
"It did. It changed my life."
"I had no idea. I was just trying to help..."
"You did more than that. I was drowning, and you saved me, and... I can't tell you how many times since then I've wished I could thank you for what you taught me... Elsa." It took an effort to say her name to her face, but he felt it was a payment she would accept.
She smiled when he called her by name. "I... I'm so glad to know it worked. I've been so worried about you..."
"You don't have to worry about me..."
"Maybe not for the usual reasons, but still..."
Now it was Bruce's turn to be taken aback. "I'm sorry – if I'd known, I... I never expected..."
"What? That I'd worry about you? We're friends, aren't we?"
"Yes, but... I guess I just assumed the queen had more important friends to worry about."
"I've never met someone else who understood what it's like," Elsa said tenderly. "Finding a friend like that... it meant a lot to me."
Bruce could echo her own earlier statement: "I... had no idea."
She shook her head as if to say it didn't matter anymore. "Well, I'm glad to know you're all right and that things have improved so much. What have you been up to?"
Where could he start? "Well, I joined a team that saved the world from an invasion by an evil sorcerer and his army of monsters from another world."
"What?!" she gasped, although he could tell she didn't doubt his words for a second.
"Might not be the best time to go into that," he said with a laugh. "What have you been up to?"
She laughed along with him before answering, "Nothing compared to that. Nothing much, in any case, actually."
"Interesting – I always assumed ruling a kingdom would be exciting."
"It is, in a way, but it's business as usual for me – sign a new treaty one day, meet with a visiting king the next, collect taxes, build new roads, administer justice, throw festivals... a great life, but nothing unusual. That is, until... well, you know."
He didn't want to make her talk about that right now. "I know... but aside from that, nothing exciting's been going on?"
"Nope."
"No major changes? No big plans?"
"Not at the moment."
He pressed her without knowing what he was fishing for. "What about this deal with the new Duke of... where is it... Weselton?"
"Couldn't have gone better," she explained. "He was nervous I would hold a grudge because his uncle once tried to kill me, but I would never hold that against him – he had nothing to do with that."
"Right," was all Bruce could say.
Elsa didn't comment on his reaction or elaborate on this allusion to her past. "I think he's satisfied. He got the new trade agreement he was hoping for."
"You sure that's all he was hoping for?" He felt himself grin without planning to.
"That's all he can reasonably hope for," Elsa said firmly, grinning back.
"So he did have something else in mind?"
"I suppose, but I don't."
He'd deduced as much from how attentive the Duke had been to her tonight. "Business seems to be thriving."
"Fortunately, it is."
"Anything else in progress for Arendelle? More pending trade agreements, new alliances... prospective kings?" What was he saying?
"Not that I'm aware of," Elsa said with a playful smirk. Well, as long as she wasn't offended...
"I'm glad to hear everything's going smoothly," said Bruce, carefully pronouncing every syllable to keep his face straight and his voice serious. This became all too easy when he added, "I mean, except for..."
"Except for this new curse," she dubbed it.
"We're going to get to the bottom of this," he assured her.
"I thank you," Elsa whispered, "but I'm just so worried. What if it gets worse before you do? The cold started before this – what if something else is waiting to happen next? You three seem to understand more about it than anyone; I feel like you're our best hope, but I'd feel better if we could find some answers before you left."
"That would be pointless," said Bruce. "Our best bet is to go find the source and shut it down."
"Maybe, maybe not. I'd feel my people were safer if one or two of you stayed behind to keep an eye on things."
There was no hidden meaning to this conversation. Bruce shook his head. "Splitting up wouldn't be smart; in our experience, it never works out."
Elsa sighed in resignation but also smiled weakly. "Well, I trust you all know what you're doing."
"As much as anyone can facing the unknown."
"How long do you think it will take?"
"There's no way to tell at this point," Bruce said as the music ended.
"Then I wish you all luck tomorrow... Dr. Banner."
He heard the hesitation before she said his name. How arrogant would it be for him to correct her? To say, in its place, "Bruce" – the universal gesture of intimate friendship? To assume she needed his permission to address him like a friend? To imply they were equals by offering her something she had no right to take on her own? But after he'd confessed how much he owed her, how disrespectful would it be to begrudge her this, especially after she'd given hers to him when they first met? It felt unnatural to hear her call him by such a formal title; it was only right he should fix it now.
Bruce – the word was on the tip of his tongue, ready to part from his lips, when she looked down and asked, "What's this?" as her hand brushed against something on his wrist that she hadn't noticed before.
He instantly pulled his hands free from hers, gripping his wrist as he avoided looking her in the eye. "Oh, that's just my heart monitor," he calmly explained. "It tells me how fast my pulse... my heart's beating. Lets me know if I'm in danger..."
"I see. Your world has the most incredible devices," she said, innocently untroubled, as they left the dance floor.
After that, all he could think about was what that gadget implied for him and everyone who got near him. At first, he was deeply depressed as he recalled why he had to take such precautions and all his fears of what lurked inside him returned. Before long, however, he was grateful that she had reminded him how things really stood. No matter how successful his control might be, he would never be completely free, he would never be completely safe, and he could never risk dropping his guard. It was something he should never let himself forget.
Ten of the fifteen minutes Tony had allotted before he went looking for Barton passed before the latter returned to his room to find his two teammates waiting anxiously for him.
"Who wants to go first?" the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent asked without segue as he began unstrapping his ice-encrusted weapons.
Tony shrugged but accepted. "Well, I asked around, and all of the foreign visitors I spoke to say nothing like this is happening in any other kingdoms they've been to. Whatever this thing is, it's contained only within Arendelle."
"Not contained – more like targeted," said Hawkeye. "Someone was watching me. I couldn't find them; they must have been using some sort of surveillance – magic surveillance around here, I guess – but it's not just random. There are people out there stirring up trouble, people who want this to happen."
"Yeah, we just don't know who, how, or why," Tony pointed out.
"Kristoff told me tonight that the ice harvesters were the first to be affected," Bruce revealed.
"But, even though some people are affected more strongly than others, time doesn't seem to be a factor," Tony added. "Severity doesn't correspond with when they caught it."
"Elsa's worried about it progressing," said Bruce. "She thinks there could be another, worse phase ahead."
"I don't blame her – anything's possible," Hawkeye said, crossing his arms.
"Especially if someone has it in specifically for her kingdom," Tony said ominously.
"Do you think they'll be safe until we get back?" Bruce asked.
"If not, there's not much we can do." Stark's teammates knew him well enough to know he wasn't being cruel or cynical, just stating a practical fact.
Hawkeye shook his head as he paced around the room. "We don't know what's gonna happen here next. We have no idea what we're dealing with." He finally looked up, walked towards the other two, and said, "I think one of us might have to stay here to monitor the situation – see what develops. There are answers here we haven't found yet; the solution might be here, not at the source of the polar vortex."
"What happened to splitting up being a bad idea?" Tony asked.
"It's better than ignoring what's going on here."
Bruce folded his arms and asked with a shrug, "All right, so, who's it gonna be?"
"It can't be me," Stark answered, as if he wished it weren't the case. "I'm the only one who can fly now – doesn't make sense for me not to travel."
"No argument there," Bruce agreed before turning to Barton. "If there is anything to find here, you're the one who can find it, right?"
"Before tonight, I would've said, 'Yes,' no question," the archer replied. "But even if I could, I can't back out. Official assignment or not, I'm the only one here who's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent; I have to see this through to the end. That means going on the mission I was assigned, not stopping to investigate some anomaly we find along the way."
Bruce couldn't remember how they ultimately came to the conclusion of who would stay behind. Probably because he'd been expecting it all along. How he felt about it, he couldn't hope to say – his fear, sense of a debt owed, restrictions of the superego, and personal desire were in too great a conflict to judge which was most prevalent in his mind.
Elsa and Hawkeye had agreed yesterday that it would be best if the three travelers – now reduced to two – left without an audience, so Elsa had arranged for her, Anna, and Kristoff to be absent for a few hours while they escorted their visitors back to where they crashed, where they would then retrieve what they needed before departing for good. Bruce wasn't present when Barton told her the change in the plan, but he noticed Anna wouldn't stop giggling or nudging her husband when they all ate an early breakfast together, which he spent wondering why his friends had such faith in him.
After breakfast, the group made their way out to the stables, where five of them piled into a sled pulled by two reindeer, and Hawkeye mounted a third. They would have been able to carry more in a sled, but a) they couldn't be sure what terrain they were heading for, and b) this would be faster; it still hadn't put an end to Stark's jokes about how it would be even faster if he just slung him over his shoulder and blasted off.
"Hey, our mother used to tell us stories about how she rode across half the world on a reindeer," Anna said in playful indignation.
"It's the only way to travel around here," Kristoff added.
"Well, when in Rome..." Tony conceded.
Hawkeye – who had worked in and been trained for much stranger conditions – tied a lead rope to the second reindeer, already loaded with all the food, weapons, and supplies he wasn't carrying in his backpack, double-checked the quiver of arrows now hanging from his hip like a sword, and nodded that he was ready. He and Kristoff snapped the reins, and they were off.
Bruce had been dreading that Stark would use up every last minute before they parted hounding him about what had happened last night, but he either chose to show him mercy, had learned enough from Anna and his own observations, or had his priorities in order, asking only questions about the area they were heading into and what they could expect. They reached the site where the Quinjet had crashed without incident. Hawkeye insisted they circle the area before approaching it, but no one was around; it looked undisturbed. The agent dismounted and unlocked the jet, going inside to get a tablet whose battery-power should last long enough for its GPS and other functions to be useful. Stark, meanwhile, remotely unlocked the glass compartment where he'd stowed the suit and stood outside the door.
"Remember what I told you guys about what you're about to see," Tony warned the queen and her family. "This armor I invented is unlike anything you've ever seen before. It'll be strange, even shocking, but trust me, there's nothing to be scared of."
"Yeah, yeah, we know, we know," Kristoff said impatiently. "Get on with it, already."
"Just don't freak out, okay?" Tony said one last time, apparently forgetting that slang didn't always translate well, before activating his wristbands. He was only a few yards away, and not falling from the top of a skyscraper, so the suit didn't need to zoom out to him quickly, but he still wasn't surprised at how they gasped at the sight of the metal monstrosity enveloping him from behind, completely covering him except for the circle of light now glowing very noticeably in his chest.
"Welcome back, sir," JARVIS' voice said in his ear once the helmet snapped shut. "Having a nice vacation?"
"Yeah," Tony answered. "Met a lot of nice people. Fill you in later." He opened the visor and looked at the three stunned faces before him. "I warned you."
"Incredible," Elsa whispered. "How did you build this?"
"Need a little more time to explain that. If you really want to know, I'll tell you when we get back."
They continued to stare in wonder while Hawkeye locked down the Quinjet. "I wonder if I could make one out of ice," and Elsa held her hands up as she looked it up and down, as if she was already making the calculations in her head. "Or at least something like it."
"That just might be the second-most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my entire life," Kristoff said dumbly.
Anna was the only one who still looked frightened. "What is that?" she asked, pointing at his glowing chest.
"It's called an arc reactor," Tony tried to explain. "It generates power. See, a few years ago, I was injured in a battle – well, an ambush, technically. Pieces of shrapnel lodged just inches away from my heart. I was able to build this to power a small electromagnet, which stops the shrapnel from reaching my heart, but it generates way more power than I need – enough to power this suit."
His story seemed to deeply disturb Anna, as she clutched her own chest and leaned against her husband, who threw his arms protectively around her, while Elsa placed a supporting hand on her shoulder. Tony certainly hoped it wasn't because it reminded her of any similar trauma she'd seen or endured, but how could that be?
The tension was relieved by Hawkeye joining them and asking, "All set?"
"All systems are go," Tony confirmed.
"Be careful, guys," Banner told his friends.
"You, too," Hawkeye said as they shook his hands. "Take care of yourself."
"Too late for that," Bruce replied instantly.
"Good luck," Anna said as Hawkeye mounted his reindeer again. "I wish we were going."
"No, you don't," Elsa and Kristoff said in unison.
"We'll send you a postcard," Stark told her before turning to Banner. "Well, this is good-bye for now."
The two friends shook hands. "Just try to stay out of trouble," Bruce warned him.
"If you promise to do something for me."
"What?"
"Make it count." Stark gave him one wink before turning to Anna. "Keep an eye on him for me." She nodded in assent just before the visor snapped closed. "Next stop – Mordor."
Kristoff and the girls gasped again as the armor took to the air, hovering just a few feet off the ground. Hawkeye gave them one last, "Good-bye, and thank you for everything," and rode off, Iron Man turning to salute them before following in the air.
"Is this the part where we wake up?" Kristoff asked as they looked off into the distance after them.
"What now?" asked Anna.
"Now we wait," Elsa replied.
"And keep our eyes open," Bruce added. As he and Elsa turned to each other, he found the answer to what he had been unable to determine last night. He couldn't vouch for the wisdom of it, but the truth was, the prospect of spending more time with her was not unpleasant. He had to admit he was looking forward to it with pleasure. Why shouldn't he just go with it? Why should he worry that Arendelle would be any less safe than India? This wasn't the time to waste on paranoid worries and fears – they had an important job to do together.
It was just as he decided this that Elsa reached out and took his hand just like she had last night, as if she could see his resolve and wanted him to know they were in this together. All she said, however, was, "Thank you." He didn't reply but squeezed her hand to assure he was with her.
Smart move or not, there was no turning back now.
