Restless

As David Xanatos gazed through his binoculars from one of the castle's towers, he could hardly believe his eyes. Of course he had seen the same thing from the security cameras, but at the time he figured the system had been hacked and the image doctored, perhaps a prank performed by Lexington. Nonetheless, here he was now seeing it with his own eyes: accompanied by Angela, Broadway and some unidentified flying blond girl was an actual reindeer-driven flying sleigh, in which Goliath and Elisa were riding as passengers.

As great as his disbelief was, his curiosity about this oddity, as well as his concern about what had happened to Goliath and Elisa, was greater. "Well this in an interesting development," Xanatos mused as he lowered the binoculars, a half smile upon his face as he turned towards his servant and friend Owen, "Please go get the first aid kit and have the other gargoyles come up here right away, Owen."

"At once, sir," Owen replied in his usual wooden manner before turning and heading back inside, then Xanatos himself took the stairs down to the ward. As he reached the bottom, the keep's doors open and Hudson, Lexington and Bronx came bounding out while Brooklyn glided in from beyond the parapets.

"What's going on, Xanatos?" Lexington asked in nervous agitation, "Owen said you heeded to see us right away."

"I had Owen call you all here because I thought you'd want to know that Goliath and the others are on their way back," Xanatos explained, "and from what I could see, he and Elisa had been hurt."

The gargoyles all gasp in shock as Brooklyn asks, "How? What happened?"

"I imagine we'll all find out together," Xanatos replied, "They're riding in now."

" 'Riding'?" Hudson asked quizzically. Then as they watched, a sleigh pulled by a reindeer cleared the parapets on the outer wall, with a couple of humans at the reins and Goliath and Elisa riding in the back, and Angela, Broadway and a flying human girl following them in from behind. "Jalapeña!" Hudson exclaimed while the other looked on in amazement.

When the sleigh landed, Goliath helped Elisa step from the back, and the others could see that they were indeed seriously injured. As the others rushed up to them, Hudson asked them in concern, "Are you alright lad and lass?"

"I'll be fine, old friend. Nothing that a good stone sleep can't cure," Goliath assured him, "I'm more concerned about Elisa."

"You took the worst of it, Goliath. I'm sure I'll be sore the nest couple of days, but I'll be fine," Elisa responded, then as she pulled out a cracked and sparking cellphone she added with a sigh, "which is more than I can say for my brand-new phone."

"What happened to you guys? You had just headed out only a couple of hours ago!" Brooklyn asked them in confused concern.

"We had run afoul of a group of Quarrymen," Goliath explained.

The others looed shocked at this revelation as Lex exclaims, "The Quarrymen!? I thought they were all behind bars!"

"Apparently since this particular group had no provable involvement in the train assault, the authorities had no basis on which to hold them," Goliath stated solemnly, then he gestured towards the group of unknown humans as he added, "If it were not for these kind humans coming along when they did, it could have been much worse, and we might not have made it back at all."

"Then you folks have our thanks," Hudson said with a smile as he extended his hand and introduced them, "My name is Hudson, and here we have Brooklyn, Lexington, our host David Xanatos…" then he gestured over to Bronx, who was excitedly greeting an equally energetic Sven, "…and that ball of energy is Bronx."

The young woman in the blue dress and silvery hair gave a small courtesy and placed her hand in Hudson's in a formal manner as she said, "A pleasure to meet you all. I am Queen Elsa of the kingdom of Arendelle. This is my sister Elsa, her boyfriend Kristoff, and the reindeer's name is Sven."

"Your Majesty," Hudson said in greeting, bowing and lightly touching her hand with his lips to complete the gesture before releasing her hand.

"A queen? Wow!" Lex exclaimed.

"Arendelle, huh?" Xanatos asked with a note of interest in his voice, "As a successful businessman, I have dealings all over the world, but I don't think I've ever heard of that place before."

"I may have," Hudson stated, "Back in the old days, when Castle Wyvern was still located in Scotland, I heard the humans talk of a small province in the region of Norway known as Arendelle, which was known for its various exports like woolen robes. It is possible that during the years we'd been trapped in enchanted sleep this province had grown into a full-fledged kingdom."

"That's right. Our kingdom was known for its exports. Still is, or it was when I was last there," Elsa confirmed, her voice faltering on the last sentence from concern over what Xanatos had said about not hearing anything about her home.

"Just how long have you been away from home child?" Hudson asked gently.

"And how did you get this thing to fly?" Lexington asked eagerly as he examined the sleigh from every angle, "I don't see any means of propulsion on it anywhere."

"It was able to fly due to some pixie dust on it," Elsa answered.

"Pixie dust?" Lex asked as he wiped some of the dust off and rubbed it between his fingers.

"Yes, Tinker Bell and the other fairies sprinkled it on the sled and the boat I'd made before we left Neverland," Elsa explained, "That's what enabled us to fly here, although we were trying to fly home at the time."

"Neverland?" Lexington perked up, "As in Peter Pan and Captain Hook?"

"I heard Elisa mention those names before, but I never met those people," Elsa responded, "only Tinker Bell and the other fairies of Pixie Hollow on Neverland. They rescued me from the pirates who grabbed me from my home, and in return I, together with my sister and Kristoff, helped them defend their home when the pirates returned to try and steal their pixie dust."

"Sounds like we arrived just when the conversation was getting interesting," Xanatos heard his wife Fox say from the doorway, and as he turned he saw her standing there cradling their son Alexander with Owen standing right behind holding the first aid kit.

"I apologize for the delay, sir," Owen said to Xanatos, "I encountered your wife on my way back with the med kit and she insisted on greeting accompanying me to greet our new arrivals."

"That's quite alright, Owen. I understand," Xanatos said with a wave, then he turned towards the others and said, "Everyone, this is my assistant Owen, my wife Fox, and my son Alexander. Fox, Owen, this is Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, and Kristoff of the kingdom of Arendelle."

"A pleasure," Fox said as she bowed her head and smiled. Elsa, on the other head, could only goggle and gape for a moment at the baby in Fox's arms before she said, "It's him! That's the baby I saw!"

"Are you sure?" Anna asked her.

"I'm positive!" Elsa confirmed, "The same hair, same eyes, even the dimple in the cheeks is identical. He's the one!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Fox apprehensively as she protectively cradled Alexander closer to her chest.

"I'm sorry, my lady, I did not mean to alarm you," Elsa said apologetically, "but as we were flying home through the passage that separated Neverland from the rest of the world I saw a pair of faces before a wind came up out of nowhere and blew us off course. One of the faces I saw was that of your son

"I'm afraid that it's true sir," Owen confirmed to Xanatos as he handed the med kit to him, then he turned to Elsa and gave a stiff bow as he continued, "I feel that I must apologize for any inconvenience little Alexander's merriment had caused you, but I am glad to see you again and to know that you made it out of your ordeal relatively unscathed."

"Again?" Elsa asked in confusion, "I'm sorry, but I don't…"

"It's rather understandable that you would not recognize me in this form," Owen clarified in his usual wooden manner as he cradled his stone fist against his chest, "but when you saw me last I had flowing white hair and long, pointed ears."

"That was you?" Elsa asked in shock, "You were the one with the baby?"

"Correct," Owen confirmed, then at Xanatos' quizzically raised eyebrow Owen continued, "As you may recall sir, due to my standing up against my Lord Oberon in the defense of you and your family, I have been banished from Avalon and confined to the human form of Owen Barnett under which I had been serving you for a number of years prior to then. The only time I'm allowed to take my form as Puck or use my magic is when I'm either training your son to use his powers or protecting him from harm."

"So when I saw you two, you were teaching him something?" Elsa asked Owen.

"Not exactly," Owen countered, "You see, in the middle of the lesson Alexander had caught sight of you folks passing through the Veil and gotten distracted. It's not often that someone sees a flying boat, particularly one made of ice, or a flying sleigh, although many children hope to see one, particularly that last one for reasons I'm sure you can imagine."

"Ah well," Xanatos said airily, "boys will be boys."

"Indeed," Owen confirmed woodenly, "The fact is that the sight of your vessel had so delighted Alexander that his merriment resulted in an uncontrolled burst of power, the result of which was the wind that had sent you here."

"Okay, based on what you said, our coming here was an accident, right?" Elsa asked. When Owen nodded, she continued, "Then couldn't you just do another spell to send us back home?"

"I am sorry, but as I said I am forbidden from using my powers except to train or protect Alex," Owen apologized, "Furthermore, since it wasn't an actual spell that brought you here it isn't as easy as teaching Alexander the counter-spell so he can use it to send you home."

"So you're saying that we're stuck here?" Anna asked in dismay and homesickness.

"Only for the time being," Owen clarified, "I will need to do some research, figure out exactly where and when you hade come from, and make sure that you had not come from some alternate time line, as that is also possible. Once I have narrowed down all the variables, I should be able to craft a spell that Alexander can use to send you home," then, with a look at Goliath, Owen added, "It's too bad that we don't have access to the Phoenix Gate, as that would have made this much simpler."

"Indeed, but you know why I had to get rid of it," Goliath said somewhat defensively.

"Of course, there's no need to apologize. Any wizened being would have done what you did in your position," Owen said assuredly, "I'm just saying that hindsight is 20/20."

"What is this Phoenix Gate?" Elsa asked Goliath.

"It is a powerful mystical artifact," Goliath explained, "Forged in Avalon eons ago, it had the power to transport others through time and space with a mere thought. It was in my possession until a little more than a year ago, when Puck tried to trick me into handing it over to him so that he might use it as a bribe to persuade Oberon into letting him remain in the human world a little while longer. As a result of that, I felt that the chance of it falling into the wrong hands was too great, so I activated the gate and threw it into the portal generated trusting that, without a mind to direct it, it would remain lost in the time-stream for all time."

"I see," Elsa said morosely, feeling despair and depression closing in again.

"Not to worry, your Highness," Owen assured her, "I will do everything that I can to find a way to get you back home. Now, if you'll excuse me?" Then Owen nodded to Xanatos and walked back in the door to the keep.

As Goliath watched Owen make his way down the hall, a pensive look on his face. Elisa caught sight of this and asked, "I know that look. What is troubling you, Goliath?"

"I was thinking about what Xanatos had said, about not having heard of the country of Arendelle," Goliath answered her.

"I had caught that too," Elisa acknowledged, "What about it?"

"Often, if there's no record in the present of a country that existed in the past, then that means that the country was wiped out at some point, either by being destroyed or absorbed through conquest, or simply by fading away," Goliath explained, "The loss of both a leader and the one next in line could possibly lead to that outcome. If that is the case here, then it is possible that they might not be able to return to their own time."

Both Anna and Elsa look shocked at this revelation as Elsa asked desperately, "Why not? If our kingdom had disappeared simply because we weren't there…"

"I understand why this news might upset you. As one who is over 1000 years out of the time that I called home I sympathize," Goliath said with a sorrowful look in his eyes, "but though my experiences with the Phoenix Gate I have found that history is immutable. No matter what you do to try and change the past, history will always correct itself to nullify what changes you make. If your kingdom is gone in the present, then there may be nothing you can do to correct it, even if you are successful in returning home."

"But Goliath, what if Xanatos was lying about not hearing of their kingdom?" Elisa asked under her breath, aware that Xanatos was still nearby and listening in, "You know, to keep them here maybe?"

Goliath briefly glanced sideways at Xanatos as he answered, "Believe me, Elisa, I had considered that possibility. While I believe he no longer harbors ill will against my clan, I have not made the mistake of trusting him blindly. However, while he may be prone to altering events to serve his own needs, I do not see how he would benefit from a queen without a kingdom. As he is a businessman, I think he would stand to reap greater benefits from restoring a kingdom that deals in exports, particularly if they remembered his part in it and felt grateful. While it is possible he may be wrong or that his information is incomplete, I feel that in this he is telling what he believes to be the truth."

"Exactly," Xanatos sat as he handed the first aid kit to Fox and took Alexander from her, "I wouldn't worry too much, though. Owen is quite capable, whether he has magic or not. But I'm sure you folks are quite exhausted from your trip, so if you'll follow me I can show you to the guest quarters, then when you wake I can help you get some clothes and supplies to help you better blend in while you're here."

Elsa and Anna Looked uncertainly between Xanatos and Goliath, the latter whom smiled reassuringly as he said, "Go on then, you'll be all right here. Dawn is upon us, so it is time for me and my clan to rest as well." Goliath then hugged Elisa and said, "Until tonight, Elisa," then he climbed up to the parapets next to the other gargoyles and assumed a fierce pose out towards the city just as the sun peaked over the horizon. As the sun's rays touched Goliath and his clan, they turned to stone before the disbelieving eyes of Elsa and her friends.

"Wow, and I thought the trolls back home were fascinating!" Anna breathed.

"I never cease to be amazed myself," Xanatos agreed, then he gestured behind him with the hand not cradling his son as he said, "Well, if you'll follow me…?"

Elisa nodded reassuringly, then Elsa, Anna and Kristoff followed Xanatos back inside the castle while Sven remained behind to graze on the grass in the ward. Fox then knelt down beside Elisa while she opened the med kit, but Elisa waved her off as she took a jar out from within, opening it as she said, "This ointment is all I need, and I prefer to apply it myself, thanks."

"You still don't trust me," Fox stated simply.

"Would you? After everything you and your husband have done?" Elisa said as she rubbed the ointment into her bruises.

"No, I suppose I wouldn't," Fox conceded.

"Anyway, it's not so much a matter of trusting you or not as it is self-reliance," Elisa continued as she stretched to apply the ointment in her more difficult to reach areas, "If I wasn't prepared to take care of myself after such a rough-and-tumble day, then I wouldn't have become a cop."

"That's true. I suppose that's one similarity we share," Fox agreed, then she placed on hand on Elisa's knee as she continued softly, "I never did thank you properly for your part in saving my son."

"Thanks, but I really had no part in that myself," Elisa kindly dismissed her, "I was passed out all that time due to Oberon's spell."

"I wasn't thinking of that," Fox corrected her with a smile, "but rather back in Australia, when you and Goliath saved me and my unborn son from being devoured by the nanites, and again when you and the gargoyles saved my son from Doyle's kidnappers."

"Oh, well don't worry about that," Elisa said modestly, "Just part of the job."

"Well, 'part of the job' or not, my family owes just as much to you as it does to Goliath and his clan, so….thanks," Fox replied.

"You're welcome," Elisa said as she patted Fox's hand, then she stood and stretched, wiping the excess ointment on her pant leg as she said, "Speaking of the job, I need to call in the report of the Quarryman's attack. Mind if I borrow your phone?"

Fox smiled and handed Elisa her phone and, after she figured out where to touch on the touchscreen to access the dialer, Elisa called the precinct to report the attack, downplaying the role Elsa and her friends played in order to avoid causing them trouble, and called out for an APB on her attackers. Then she disconnected the call and started to hand it back over, but Fox just wave her off and said, "Keep it. I'll have Owen transfer it to your name before you get back to the station. It's the least I can do."

Elisa briefly considered turning down Fox's generosity, as this was one of the most expensive phones currently on the market, but then she placed the phone in her pocket and said, "Thanks. I should be going now." Elisa then walked back to the doors leading inside the castle and opened them, stopping briefly to look over her shoulder to say in a gentler tone, "I don't think I'll ever fully trust you or Xanatos the way that the gargoyles had back in the beginning, but I suppose I can give you guys the opportunity to start earning that trust."

"Thanks," Fox said with a smile, which Elisa returned with a nod before she continued on inside.

Hours later, down at the station…

"What do you mean you're letting them walk!?" Elisa bellowed at her Captain.

"Calm down, Elisa," Captain Chavez gently said.

"Calm down!? Captain, they attacked Goliath and myself!" Elisa snapped at her, "They were going to kill us! They practically bragged about it!" Feeling a pressure on the back of her neck, Elisa turned her head to see the Quarrymen who had been picked up a few hours ago turning to exit the main doors. A few of them were smirking at her as their comrades walked past, one going as far to mockingly blow a kiss at her. Fuming, Elisa turned back towards her Captain as she was saying, "And if we had any evidence that they had done it you know that I would gladly lock them away and throw away the key. Nobody attacks a cop in this town and gets away with it!"

Elisa pulled down the collar of her shirt to reveal the bruise there, which had already turned an ugly shade of purple, and screamed, "Is this not evidence enough!?"

"It proves you were attacked, yes, but not who had done it," Chavez said patiently, "You said yourself that your attackers wore hoods and gloves, and that you had not seen the license plate of the van they got away in. That means that it could have been anyone under there. I had my people go over the place where we picked them up at with a fine tooth comb, but there was nothing to tie them to the scene of the crime, and they all had alibis. Without a reliable eyewitness or a smoking gun, we had nothing to hold them on." As Elisa turns her back to the Captain in a huff, Chavez gently asked Elisa, "Are you sure that your mysterious benefactors have no additional information they could provide?"

Elisa had been deliberately vague in the report about Anna's and Elsa's involvement in their rescue, partly because they had not been in a position to provide an more useful information, but also she did not want to draw attention to the fact that the two of them were in this country without any papers to show. "They saw the exact same things that Goliath and I saw," Elisa replied without turning around, "which is apparently nothing!"

Captain Chavez reached across the desk to place a comforting hand on Elisa's shoulder, then cringed as Elisa flinched away in pain. "Sorry," she apologized, "Why don't you take the next few days off on paid medical leave, to rest and heal. I'll have some people tail those creeps for a while. If any of them so much as jaywalks or drops a single piece of litter, we'll have them back behind bars before they can blink."

"Thanks," Elisa says as she walks away, then as soon as she's out of the office she mutters, "but, as usual, this looks like a job for the gargoyles."

"Wow, the women of this time like to dress rather….conservatively, don't they?" Anna's voice came from the adjoining dressing room, sounding as if she were embarrassed. When Elsa lifted herself up to look over the wall that separated them she could see why. When Elsa had first used her powers to change her coronation dress into the one that she wore most days, Elsa had thought that she was being daring. However, the dress that Anna was currently trying on now, with its strapless and backless design, low-cut bodice, and extremely short skirt, that it made Elsa's frost dress look positively modest.

True to his word, once Elsa and her friends had a couple hours of sleep (or at least rest, for Elsa was too keyed up for sleep), Xanatos had supplied them with a couple of stiff rectangular cards that he said were what most people these days used to purchase things, as well as a couple of assistants to accompany them where they needed to go. Because the stores that sold the "best" clothing were different for men than they were for women they had to take two separate vehicles. Anna had balked at the idea of separating, and Elsa had said that wasn't necessary to go to so much trouble, but Xanatos had insisted that it was no trouble at all. Realizing that arguing the point much further might insult their host, they reluctantly agreed.

Returning her mind to the present, Elsa told Anna, "The green one looked good on you. I think you should get that one."

"Really?" Anna asked as she held the dress Elsa was indicating up to her again.

As she appraised it again, Elsa saw that while it was still rather daring for people from their time, the skirt only came up to just below the knees, and the neckline only dipped slightly lower than the apparel that women from their era wore. "Absolutely," Elsa confirmed.

As for her own outfit, Elsa had decided that she would go against the conventions of her era and abide by those these people lived by. Instead of a dress, Elsa had decided on a pair of tight trousers she was told was made of something called faded denim, a white undershirt, and a light blue leather jacket. While she was wearing this outfit, Elsa felt strong, powerful, and confident in a way that she hadn't felt since she had arrived in this strange era. She also thought that this look seemed somewhat familiar. Then, as she looked into the mirror at a certain angle, she saw it: this outfit was almost the same as the one Elisa Maza wore, only with a lighter color tone. This made her almost decide against it, afraid that she might offend Elisa by copying her. But then as she thought how strong Elisa always seemed, even in the face of impossible odds, Elsa decided that wasn't a bad person to model herself off of.

The outfit felt so good when she had it on that she didn't want to take it off just yet, but she was afraid it might cause too much confusion if she came in with her dress on and left completely without it, so she recreated it on one of the hangers that had been left in the room, then draped it over her shoulder as she exited the dressing area.

As they went to the clerk to have the tags on their purchases "scanned" and the clerk removed the "anti-theft devices" that were attached (although how something so small was supposed to keep someone from taking something without first paying for it Elsa had no idea), they ran the card through the device as instructed. After the machine spat out a printed piece of paper, the clerk handed the paper to them along with bags containing Anna's outfits and wished them a good day.

When they walked out the door, the assistant (who had patiently waited just inside the door) followed them outside and called for the driver to come pick them up. While they were waiting, Anna turned to her sister and said hesitantly, "Uh, Elsa? About Mr. Xanatos…"

Elsa, who had been expecting this topic to come up for a bit now, braced herself as she prompted, "Yes?"

When Anna felt the assistant was not paying them much attention, or at least was being polite by pretending not to, she continued, "I know that he's being very kind to us, but there's just something about him that….that…"

Seeing Anna struggling to complete her though, Elsa offered, "…reminds too much of the Duke of Weselton?"

Anna looked ashamed that she'd thought that, but she said in a small voice, "Yeah."

Elsa put a reassuring arm around Anna's shoulders as she said, "Don't fret about it too much. I'd been feeling the same way for a while now."

When the car arrived and the assistant held the back door open for them, Anna asked, "Do you think we can trust him?"

As Elsa and Anna entered the car and fastened the belts attached to the seats, Elsa said as the car drove to where they would meet up with Kristoff to do the part of the shopping they would be able to do together, "We don't have much of a choice right now, Anna. Even if I had the Royal Seal with me when the pirates had grabbed me, and even if they would have let me keep it, I don't think that it would have been worth much here. Right now, as long as we're stuck here, Mr. Xanatos' generosity is the only thing helping us get by here. If he turns out too much like the Duke, however, I'm sure that we can count on Elisa and the gargoyles to have our backs. Besides, anybody would have to be crazy or just plain stupid to mess with your big sister."

When Anna didn't lose her frown of worry, Elsa tousled Anna's hair until she got a smile out of her, then she hugged her warmly as she said, "Don't worry, Anna. Everything is going to be just fine."

As the sisters enjoyed the warm embrace, a loud screeching sound startled them both. Before the could recover enough to figure out where the sound came from, a huge, jarring impact from the left side of the vehicle shook what sense they had out of them, and the vehicle's rolling over and over on its side had them completely disoriented.

When the vehicle finally went still, the first sensation that came to Anna through her grogginess was pain: pain greater than when the pirates had clocked her from behind, pain greater than when the chandelier of her ice palace fell practically on top of her. Then the next thing she was aware of was that she was hanging upside down, held in place by the "seatbelt" that, most likely, saved her life. But even though she could feel the blood rushing to her head, Elsa could not summon the strength to move to unfasten it. She wanted to call out to Anna to ask if she was all right, but she had trouble forming the words.

Soon she heard the breaking of glass and the wrenching of metal accompanied by a fresh breeze tinged with the hint of smoke. Then there was a frenzied motion as first Anna's then her own seatbelts were released, followed by the sensation of being carried by her hands and feet. Even though she had a hard time focusing her eyes, Elsa could tell right away that something was wrong. These were not the cautious and gentle grips of rescuers, but instead were hard and rough. She heard voices frantically saying, "Hurry up! Get them in the truck!" Then she had the sensation of being slid in against a hard metal surface.

Finding her tongue again, Elsa weakly asked, "Anna? Where?"

"Don't you worry, pretty little witch," a rough voice responded, and Elsa was briefly able to focus enough to see a hooded face and a stylized logo depicting a hammer in a circle on a black uniform, "You're just going for a little ride." Then the doors at the back of the truck closed and Elsa succumbed to unconsciousness.