Freya was swinging her legs impatiently as the rabble calmed down and Jasper was getting some sort of order in the room. Nat had planted herself next to her and started swinging her legs at the same rhythm.
"You guys are done fighting now," Nat said.
"Yes, no more arguing," Freya said as reassuringly as possible.
"Good," Nat said. She stopped swinging and looked inquisitive; Freya could almost hear the cogs whirring in her head.
"The scarred lady is scary," she finally said.
"She's alright, just has a lot of reasons to be scary," Freya said.
"She looks like a cold one but she's warm. At least she's warm," Nat said.
"I guess so," Freya found it easiest to pretend to understand what Nat would say. In the past she tried to get her to elaborate on some of the things she said, it always ended up making less sense or caused Nat to start panicking uncontrollably. Having just spoken about Anna, Freya looked around for her. She was conspicuously missing. Part of her wanted to get up and look for her but she would risk missing the plan briefing.
"Did you see where the scarred lady went?" Freya asked. Nat pointed to the command room door with her bare foot, she rarely wore footwear.
"Hans is in there too," she said.
Anna was probably getting her own briefing which made sense if her role was as big as was let on. The room had finally gotten quiet enough for Jasper.
"Alright everyone, I'll cut to the chase. I know Hans and I have been very quiet, particularly in these past few months. The truth of the matter is we're going to Arendelle itself. Everything said here must not leave this room at any cost and we'll be operating on a need to know basis. This is far too important to let it slip, is that clear?" This was met with a few grunts and some yeses from everyone listening.
"Soon we're going to head out to the capital. Large numbers of people move in and out of the city every day, other cells will take advantage of this and move in one by one, some are there now and some are on the way as we speak. They are there to cause as much chaos as possible over every inch of the city once a signal is given." He said.
"Other cells? What will we be doing?" Tobi asked, he had a habit of interrupting.
"All of you gathered here are the strongest fighters and guardians the resistance has to offer. Some of you will disapprove of this but you must carry out this task to the best of your ability. You must follow and protect Anna at all costs," he said.
"Why does she get such special treatment?" a voice chimed in.
"She's an important asset, more than that I can't say," Jasper said. The speed in which they were mobilising for this was incredible. Anna had only just showed up let alone the fact she had been accepted by the people in this room only a few minutes ago, moving this fast seemed like a big risk even to Freya.
"Before anyone thinks to question this order, just know it comes directly from Hans and me. If you trust us then for all your sakes do not pry into this. You will be informed when we move out, until then be ready to move at a moment's notice," he finished. Freya was disappointed with how uninformative Jasper had been. He moved off and was now talking to everyone individually. She might be able to get more out of in when it was her turn. For now she turned to see a smiling Nat.
"Protecting each other for the coming storm," Nat said. Freya just let the statement hang in the air as she kept an eye on Jasper. He had to deal with a couple of disgruntled souls but most seemed content to simply acknowledge his orders, so he was moving round the room at a decent pace. Most were satisfied enough to go about their business once Jasper had spoken to them personally, she was glad to see almost no-one was kicking up much of a fuss or arguing about their assignment to be Anna's bodyguards. Jasper made his way over to Nat.
"Are you okay to go back there?" He asked. Nat just nodded sheepishly, she was always a little more timid around jasper but judging by the looks on both of their faces this was a much bigger question than it appeared to be. They exchanged a wordless conversation with their eyes, after a few seconds he smiled patted her on the shoulder. He was then hesitant to move on to Freya, she could see by his face she was not going to like what he had to say. Was she going to be stuck with one of the other, less important cells?
"Freya, I… you…" he was struggling to pick his words. Jasper was usually the epitome of confidence and control but when it came to delivering orders Freya would hate, he came across as less than sure.
"Out with it," she said.
"Freya, you will be staying put."
What?" she said.
"When we mobilise you are to stay here, we need you and Sigmund to co-ordinate any stragglers," he said.
"This better be some sort of joke," she had been prepared to argue about a less important role but to have been given a glorified version of sitting around and doing nothing was far worse than she could have imagined.
"That's your job in this," he said. Freya wanted to argue with him but she knew who was really responsible. She let Jasper move on and shot over to the command room's door, it was locked. Knocking was given no response so she knocked much harder. When nothing continued to happen she started punching at it continuously, willing to knock the damn thing down if she had to. If Hans tried to ignore his way out of this one it would end very badly, she would make sure of that. Freya looked over to Jasper who had been watching her sullenly, but did not have it in him to look her in the eye. Freya was making a scene but refused to let that stop her. However before she escalated things she heard the lock unlatch, there was no way Hans would cave this quickly if at all. This suspicion was confirmed when she discovered Anna was the one who had opened it for her. She moved in swiftly.
"Nothing. You have me here doing nothing," she said. She made sure not to shout, Hans had drilled that shouting got you nowhere since they first started travelling together. Hans sat in silence with a steely expression. Anna had closed the door behind Freya when she stepped in.
"She deserves an explanation," Anna said to Hans. He looked less than appreciative of being undermined, but stayed quiet.
"If you don't say anything I will," Anna said. After some internal speculation he spoke.
"So be it," Hans said. "You're staying behind because I don't want you getting killed,"
"I've done my fair share of dangerous missions," Freya said.
"This is different and you know it," Hans' expression and tone were unyielding.
"You're just holding me back because you're scared," she said.
"You're right, I am scared. If you had any sense you would be too," she said.
"I'm willing to fight and die for this cause," she said.
"I'm doing this to stop you doing just that, you're too young to understand what it is to die for a cause," he said. This deflated her, people saw her as a child out of her depth a lot. She was used to it but it hurt the most on the occasions Hans would imply it, but now he was directly saying it. Anna had stayed quiet during this spat. Freya had been watching her in the corner of her eye throughout. She had been badly pretending to study a set of maps laid out in front of her but it was now that she decided to step in.
"This isn't just a dangerous plan, Freya. It's the only plan," Anna said.
"All the more reason to keep me off the side-lines" Freya responded, not quite getting the point Anna was trying to get across.
"If this fails, we're done for. No more resistance, no chance of anyone fighting for themselves again. Everyone dies and the resistance is buried. I can't let you take this sort of risk when you have your whole life ahead of you. I won't," Hans said.
"But I…" Freya said.
"Our numbers dwindle rapidly by the day as Elsa's network ruthlessly hunts our cells down, we have to move everyone now to stand even a slight chance," Hans interrupted.
"Why is this so final?" Freya asked. Jasper and Hans had refused to risk lives unnecessarily and now she was suddenly hearing of a mission of such a magnitude, it was almost unthinkable. Anna took over for Hans.
"Elsa's army is infinite and unnatural. There's no way to whittle them down. They don't eat so we can't attack their supplies. They're everywhere so we can't cut off transport links. They feel nothing so we can't crush their morale and for every one we kill Elsa can make ten more. These two held everyone back as they had no other choice," she said.
"So what's the point of any of this? With that sort of thinking you should have all given up years ago," Freya said.
"It's a distraction," Anna said, Hans shot her a look, which Anna promptly ignored. "Whilst all hands are on deck in the city, this cell is aiming for the heart of the empire itself."
Freya's eyes widened, she meant Elsa. Anna was leading a team to assassinate the Empress.
"How?" was the only word she could splutter out upon learning this.
"I'll be leading a team through network of secret tunnels leading up to the palace," Anna said.
"Ones from when you were in Arendelle? Surely no-one here has seen or used them in years?" Freya said.
"We're pretty much going in blind," she replied. Freya was beginning to understand Hans' reluctance, this sounded like a suicide mission. Even so, there was no way she would sit out on the resistance's defining moment.
"You're not coming with us," Hans reiterated. Freya looked over to Anna, hoping she would help her convince him otherwise but all Anna did was give a slight shrug and went back to studying the maps. These maps were presumably of the tunnel network, Jasper would have known about them from his imperial days as well. Anna had laid them out very clearly for herself so Freya looked them over a subtly as she could whilst she was stood there.
"Freya, do this for me. If you died and I survived…" Hans said, not wanting to continue. Freya felt defeated and had nothing left to say, Hans' needed her to stay out of this and learning just how desperate the resistance's hopes were meant all she felt she could do was turn around and leave them to it.
"Just so you know, it'll take a day or two to get everyone in place fully," Anna said to her as Freya left. Freya closed the door behind her, leaving Hans and Anna to their work.
"You okay?" Jasper asked as she re-emerged from the command room.
"No," she said.
"I get it, but there's no changing Hans' mind and even I'm inclined to agree with him. We can't have you getting lost and dying amongst all the chaos. We'd be as bad as those imps if we used soldiers as young as you for an operation like this," he stopped, he knew he had said enough already.
"Why'd you bring me here if this was your intention all along, if you wanted to carry this out without me?" Freya asked.
"I had to let you see Hans. He also needed to see you before going through with this whether he would admit it or not. Behind that unreadable face of his is a man that loves you more than anything, trust me on that," he said. Jaspers words were salving, she knew it all really but hearing it from him threw it into perspective. She and Hans really were family. There must be a way she could help protect him without taking part in this final assault. She just needed to piece something together.
Freya walked out, the humdrum of white noise and activity as everyone prepared their gear washed over her. The determined looks and impatient fidgeting took hold of everyone in the room. Some had started cooking, the smells of meats and the taste of various spices in the air suddenly felt more meaningful to her. She knew that for the people here it could be one of their last meals. She had to come to terms with the fact she would not be amongst them at the end of it all. However she set aside her anguish, for an idea had popped into her head. She would respect the wishes of Hans and Jasper, she owed them that. A couple of days was a very short turn-around for such a large scale operation but it gave her enough time. Freya headed towards the exit-door with a renewed sense of purpose. There was no room for doubt or second thoughts as she made her way outside. As if this moment she had never been surer of what she had to do, determinedly heading out into the cold breeze and seeing sunless sky looming over her.