Hans followed the drenched queen through the ship's interior and out onto the top deck. The situation revolted him, but if what Elsa said was true, he had little choice but to help.
His arm still stung painfully from where she froze him. It was like someone had pressed dry ice against his skin. But he grudgingly accepted it. He had been the one to attack first. Right now he had to focus on staying alive, and staying alive meant working with Elsa. Escape would come later.
"Captain!" Elsa called as they appeared on the rocking, slippery deck. "I've got you another crewman!" Hans looked up at the sky. The black clouds swirled ferociously and lightening sparked dangerously close to the mast. He remembered the many times he voyaged with the Southern Isle's royal navy. Diplomatic missions, political visits, whatever, anything to get away from the constant scrutiny of his parents and comparison to his brothers.
"Evening, captain!" Hans called to the burly man at the helm. "Nice summer weather we're having. What would you like for me to do?"
"You, climb up the rigging and help the sailors secure and change the sails!" The captain called, spinning the wheel mercilessly to the right to prevent the ship from capsizing.
Hans looked up the mast. Ropes were snagged, the sails were ripped, and pulleys were completely unlatched and some had fallen off. It was only a matter of time until the entire thing snapped.
"Don't think I'll be able to make any difference," he said, rolling up his drenched cotton sleeves and heading to the mast. "But, her royal ice-ness might. Can't you just calm the storm?"
"It doesn't work like that!" She called back as he began climbing up the rigging. The boat lurched again and he desperately clung to the soggy ropes.
"I made that storm last time," she continued as the boat righted itself. "This is all mother nature's doing!"
"Well, you could at least try something," he yelled pointlessly. There was no way they could carry on the argument with the storm raging the way it was. "Or are you just going to fall on the ship deck in despair like you did back in Arendelle?"
Joining the remaining sailors, he began helping to secure the snagged and snapped ropes back to their pegs. If they regarded him hostility, Hans did not notice. Prisoner or not, they were all in this death voyage together.
XXX
Elsa clung to the rail for support as the ship violently tossed against the waves. Though the roaring of the ocean and storm were near deafening, the disowned prince's spiteful words still reached her ears. She twisted her face in frustration and disgust. He regarded her still as the helpless coward who fled from her problems.
No. She was not that girl anymore.
Suddenly, a solid wave collided diagonally against the front of the ship, and before the water washed over her, Elsa heard a sickening, wooden snap.
Flung painfully against the quarterdeck stairs, she grabbed the rail and pulled her cold, aching body up. She winced and grabbed her side. She was no doctor, but it felt like she'd bruised or broken some ribs.
As her mind cleared from dizziness, she realized the front of the ship was gone.
"Captain, the prow!" She yelled, turning back to the burly, yet slightly dazed, man at the helm. But the man was nowhere in sight.
"Captain!?" She called desperately, tears filling her eyes. But there was no time to look for him. The ship was going to sink in a matter of seconds if she didn't do something.
Sliding across the increasingly sloping deck, Elsa made it to the edge of the splintered wood. Wincing slightly, she raised her trembling hands and with fear driven adrenaline, sent forth the electric blue tendrils of liquescent ice. Pulling the energy from both herself and the water around her, she drove the ice against the jagged wood.
Dropping to her knees and pushing outward, she stretched the sheet of ice and formed a new, frozen hull, and rising with a scooping motion, she pulled the sheet upward to round the new end of the boat. Then, with a fluid motion, she jabbed a hand of pointed fingers forward and from the ice shot a spiked prow.
With a huff of exhaustion, she collapsed to the deck. The ship was no longer sinking. It was going to be okay.
But the captain…
Tears filled her eyes again. He was such a good, brave man. All the men they'd lost died because of her. They put their lives in danger to serve her, and as their ruler she was supposed to be able to protect them. But all she could do was create ice sculptures and cool a summer day. How was she supposed to become a strong, political, trustworthy leader if she didn't even have faith in herself?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden, stomach dropping realization. If the captain was gone, who was steering the ship?
She turned to see Hans at the helm.
"Hans?!" She nearly choked on the word. She didn't know whether to be relieved or scared. On one hand, Arendelle's number one public enemy had control of the royal ship, but on the other hand their chance of survival had just increased tenfold.
Hans turned the wheel violently, clothes and hair dark and heavy from the torrents of rain. He looked dangerous, like a pirate stealing a ship. The snow queen approached him slowly out of both fatigue and apprehension.
"What are you doing?" She asked accusingly, eyebrows nearly as high as her voice.
"Sailing." He replied flatly, as he turned the wheel hard to the left in order to ride another colossal wave. "What are you doing?"
"I just fixed my ship," she replied angrily, viciously gesturing towards the new, ice hull. "Which it appears you are now trying to steal."
"The captain," he said venomously, letting go of the helm. "Was washed overboard in the last wave. So unless you have someone more qualified…"
The wheel spun out of control, whizzing so fast Elsa feared it would snap. The ship was already starting to teeter to the side, and Elsa had to grab the rail to prevent herself from falling in the churning sea.
"Okay, okay!" She cried, "Just sail the damn ship!"
He grabbed the wheel's base and, with a massive turn, righted the boat's position.
As the world settled once again, Elsa released her death grip from the rail and resisted the urge to shift it the prince's neck.
But then she saw it. A rouge wave.
The translucent black wall peaked high above the ship, which itself was about ten meters. This wave was over double that.
Han's stopped manning the helm. The wheel was calm this time as their course was pulled straight forward, into the hole of the wave. Like the queen, he stood motionless with his mouth agape and watched the inevitable collision, their death sentence, approach.
The monster seemed to soak up the surrounding waves, magnifying is weight and power. The flashing lightening lit up its inside, and the horror Elsa felt sank deep within her as she realized the wave was like a giant mouth. The ship was about to be swallowed into the never satisfied hole of the sea.
She stared as the behemoth arched above them, suspended timelessly in the sky, and tasted the spray that rained from above. She could not pull herself away. There was no point in trying to escape. Even if she tried to freeze it, the power behind the wave would force its way through. Her ice chunks would only do more damage.
Just like her parents, their ship would be lost forever at the bottom of the North Sea.
And as quickly as it had manifested, the wave began to fall. Cascading downward, the force of the wave sucked all the air from underneath it. Elsa clenched her jaw and felt warm tears run down her face, the last warmth she'd ever feel, and prayed her sister would forgive her for abandoning her once again.
But then she felt something warm wrap around her. Just as she was about to let herself fall into death's comforting embrace, she felt her feet fly off the deck.
Opening her eyes in the sudden lurch, she watched as she and Hans fell from the side of the doomed boat and into the freezing, unforgiving ocean below.