Anna had never trusted their light blue skinned guest. It seemed wrong to her after all she had heard from her son and her niece in Auradon. They had made friends with six giant mutant turtles, four males and two females, who had a rat master teaching them martial arts. They had a sister who was supposed to be mutant snake and two female friends who had some sort of alien and demon DNA in them. Yet that all seemed perfectly normal to her, and this did not.
But that lack of trust did nothing to prepare her for when things did go south.
It had been a rather cold night in Arendelle, all things considered. It had been after two in the morning and Anna had not been able to fall asleep. It was certainly one of those nights where she would have loved to have Kristoff by her side. But she had talked to him only that afternoon to find out that the relief effort, though turning out to be a success, was slow going. He would not be home for at least another week.
When she had told him of her suspicions about their guest he gently poked fun at her willingness to marry Prince Hans of the Southern Isles despite the fact she had not known him that well at all. It was on Anna's tongue to point how quickly she had fallen for him despite that same lack of knowledge and look where they were now when Kristoff added, "Look Anna, if you think something is wrong with her you have to follow up on that. Get Elsa to help you and have a real interrogation or something. Or ask someone in Auradon to help out. You're not alone in this, and neither is Arendelle."
"You're right." Anna said to him with a sad smile. "I have to remember that." She resolved to contact her son in the morning and get some help. She remembered Alex saying that he found one of the girls, the younger twin daughter of Maleficent Amy, very attractive and sweet. That she was the exact opposite of what they thought the Isle of the Lost stood for. And she remembered Alex commenting on her older sister Mal, her strength and determination. Her stubbornness and her confidence. Someone like her and Ellie were what they needed to find the truth. She decided she would let Elsa know about her plan and contact them when the sun rose.
That moment never came. One hour later there were several screams that echoed around the castle. Anna burst from her room only to let out a scream herself as she ducked under a rapidly flying ball of ice. It stopped and twirled back toward her. Anna scrambled into her room and closed the door, and she heard a collision against it.
She grit her teeth and slammed the door open hard, shattering the ice ball. She thought it might be easier than she expected. But as she made her way into the main halls of the castle she saw more of the ice balls fighting the guards. She saw other weird creatures; a tiger for one. Outside she gasped in shock as she saw two large monsters dealing with the guards outside.
She saw some of the strongest guards falling to three warriors; the ones she would later come to know as Grunard, Gauntula and Ryu. She suddenly feared her husband, son, and niece wouldn't have a home to come back too. She decided she had to find Elsa and they had to go to Auradon now.
Anna ran through the halls, finding Elsa's room abandoned. She had to swallow sorrow down as she saw a picture on the floor. One of their family; her, Elsa, Kristoff, Ellie and Alex on the floor. The frame was broken and there was some blood around it. She knelt down and brushed her hand against it. "You've tried so hard to make this work for all of us Elsa." She said softly, feeling an uncharacteristic rush of anger at the man who abandoned her sister and niece. "And now someone else is trying to ruin it all."
She left her sister's room to and again resumed her search. To her horror she found Elsa in the courtyard. She wasn't too shocked to find her sister in a standoff against their 'guest', the blue skinned woman.
"You fell for my trap." She gloated to Elsa. "Such a fool." She shot at Elsa with her own powers, and the Queen of Arendelle was able to block it.
"I was foolish to trust you." The blonde queen agreed. "And when we drive out your forces I'll make sure you regret bringing this to my kingdom."
That was when a three headed beast, showed up and attacked as well. It struck dangerously close to Anna and again she screamed in shock.
Elsa gasped and turned around. "Anna!" She called out. "Don't hurt my sister." She said to their invader.
"Then surrender." She ordered.
"Elsa, no!" Anna called out to her. "You can beat her."
Ice Queen shot out at her again and this time it struck the balcony. She fell hard, feeling a shooting pain in her leg. It would not fade until days later when she found herself in Auradon.
"Anna, go!" Elsa called out to her little sister. She swallowed her own sorrow. "It's too late for Arendelle. Keep our children safe. Keep Auradon safe. Keep Kristoff safe."
Anna started to protest. "I can't leave you Elsa."
The Ice Queen shot at the younger princess again and this time Elsa intercepted the blow directly, taking it in the center of her back. "Anna, go." Elsa again implored softly before she fell to her knees, losing consciousness.
"ELSA, NO!" Anna screamed in horror. She then forced that down to fulfill what she realized might have been her sister's last request. With tears glistening in her eyes she turned and ran for the gates, ran for all she was worth toward Auradon…
Anna sat up with a small scream at the nightmare and hugged the blonde in front of her. "Elsa, I'm so sorry I failed you." She whispered.
The embrace was returned. "It's me, Ellie." Her niece chided her softly. "Not mom. And you didn't fail her. You did what she said, what she knew had to be done. We're going to save Arendelle and save my mom." She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.
Anna pulled away and wiped the tears from her face. "Of course we will." She said softly.
Audrey opened her eyes and saw the last thing she expected, though it was far from unwelcome. Mal was looking down at her with a smile on her face. "Morning sleeping beauty." The purple haired girl said with a small smile.
"You're okay." Audrey gasped and hugged her for a minute. She then looked behind her and realized she must have been asleep on Jay's lap the entire time. She reached out and hugged him now. "You're all okay."
"Thanks to you." Jay said, voice full of pride. "You did it on your own. You took down Freezadon."
"Very brave and very stupid." Mal chided her softly but with her own sense of pride. "You did really great Audrey." The two former rivals exchanged friendly smiles.
Meanwhile Amy and Melody were hugging Aquiella tightly as she smiled at the sudden show of affection. Amy was the first to pull back and leaned against Alex a bit. Mal looked over at the mermaid girl and smiled. "Thank you for what you did." She said. She glanced at Melody and Amy, knowing both had contributed to her rapid recovery as well. "All of you."
"I owed you." Aquiella said with a light joking laugh. "You did that for me in Atlantica after all." She had been gravely injured taking a spear for Belle and the ranger team had healed her. "It's what we do for each other."
Ben and Amy both went over and hugged Mal again, the fifth one they had given her since she had woken up almost five minutes ago. The purple haired girl took another moment to lavish in the affection from her boyfriend and twin sister before saying, "We aren't the only family that needs a reunion." She looked to Anna, Ellie and Alex. "We need to get moving to Arendelle and liberate the kingdom and free Elsa."
"Whatever you say M." Evie said with a delighted smile of her own. She had been right behind Ben and Amy when her chosen sister had woken up. Carlos and Jay too had been delighted to see her recover as well.
"Hang on a second." Melody said. "I think we better take a moment to replenish those warmth runes you two invented." She had looked to Mal and Amy, both of who nodded in agreement. They had been close to wearing out on most of them and in the case of the twins and mermaid cousins the runes were all but gone. Between the twins and Evie they got the runes reapplied and were ready to move on.
Together the team happily but cautiously moved on. They discovered, perhaps not too surprisingly, that the way out had not been that far from where Freezadon had taken up residence. It didn't stop their surroundings from being extremely cold of course.
"Just the way Ice Queen likes it no doubt." Carlos remarked.
"I remember Tommy saying that they had been so cold even through their suits that it felt like the cold was hurting them too." Lonnie voiced. "It took an artifact that he says no longer exists to make that stop."
"Let's be glad for the warmth runes then." Jay said.
"We should head down." Anna said. "Toward the castle. The more fights we can avoid the better off we'll be." They all knew she was right and started down the mountain. Even with the thick snow cover they could just make out the ice palace Elsa had made at the top of the mountain were the giant ice guardian that she had made named Marshmallow was living at.
"I just hope they don't know that we're coming down this way." Jay commented. "If they do, we could be setting ourselves up for a major ambush here."
"The generals should have reported us dead." Carlos reminded him. "They probably don't expect any sort of opposition to whatever the Ice Queen has planned."
"A word of warning." They heard a growl from the snow. "Never underestimate the enemy. You may not live to regret it." A tiger with light blue fur emerged holding two swords and covered in wrappings, almost like a mummy. He stood on two legs, reminding Lonnie of the mutant assassin Tiger Claw that Karai had told her Shredder hired as his second in command.
Before anyone could point out that they could probably take out one tiger monster what seemed to be hundreds of floating ice balls appeared. "Ice Witches." Audrey commented softly. They all glowed softly, ready to attack the defenseless team.
"Who are you?" Evie asked. "How did you find us?"
"I am Loren, tracker of the Ice Barrier." He answered her. "Surrender now and your deaths will be quick." The tiger monster promised. "Otherwise it will be excruciating."
The team was clearly unhappy about this turn of events but they saw no other choice at the moment. Any move to transform would get them killed. If they played along maybe they would have a way of turning things around, they sure couldn't do that if they were dead. They all started to raise their hands.
"That's what I thought." Loren said gloatingly as some of the Ice Witches started toward them.
There was a loud crashing through the forest and then Anna gasped in pleasant surprise as Marshmallow revealed himself, slapping several of the Ice Witches around, this way and that.
"What? It's still alive?" Loren questioned in annoyance.
"Let's get to work." Mal called out quickly. They rapidly went from reaching toward the skies to grabbing their iPhones and inputting their numbers to transform. Ben didn't even need to change anything as he summoned his Praeleanthor sword and shield and then combining them to become the Auradon Knight.
"No crazy stunts this time, okay Audrey?" Mal commented to the red ranger.
"Sure, as long as you try to avoid any crippling shots." Audrey replied back with a small laugh.
"No promises." Mal teased the brunette princess. Then she grew more serious as she looked to Ben. "Keep Ellie, Anna and Alex safe from the Ice Witches." She instructed her boyfriend. It was weird to her sometimes to be giving the king of Auradon orders, but that was the hierarchy of the ranger team. She looked to Will, Melody, Aquiella and Amy. "Help Marshmallow," She still wondered where that name came from. "To take out the Ice Witches while the rest of us deal with Loren."
"You got it sis." Amy said even as Will, Ben and the mermaid rangers added, "You got it Mal."
"Then you six will be the first to be slaughtered, like lambs." Loren said as he stepped off to face off against Mal, Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Lonnie.
"We'll see about that stripe head." Carlos replied.
"Stripe head?" Jay questioned with a slightly mocking laugh. "Dude, we have got to work on your trash talk."
"Even I know that's really lame." Lonnie added.
Loren brought his two bladed weapons together and unleashed an icy burst of energy at the six rangers that sent them landing to the ground hard. Loren then charged toward them.
Mal rose and summoned her dragon's eye staff and met him halfway. He swung at her left handed and she blocked with the staff. He tried to go the right way and she blocked that one before slamming the jewel that made the staff what it was into his face as hard as she could.
"You will regret that purple ranger." Loren threatened her.
"Not likely." Mal retorted as she raised her dragon's eye staff. Jay and Carlos launched into the air and used that as a platform to increase their momentum as they slashed him with the soul scimitar and the earthquake claw daggers. He stumbled back with a growl.
Lonnie and Audrey moved in and double teamed with a slash attack of their own with the hurricane tessens and the right edge of the elemental bow. He rolled to the side as he stumbled back even further.
Evie unleashed her storming mirror force attack at Loren and sent him flying back into one of the trees. Some snow came lose and fell onto his head. The blue haired blue ranger couldn't help but laugh. "Looks like you've bitten off more than you can chew." She noted. "Pretty ironic if you ask me."
"Do not get cocky." Loren advised as he leaned back a bit. Then he rushed forward quickly as he moved his blades out to the side and slashed all six of them hard, forcing the boys and Lonnie to fall to the left as Audrey, Mal and Evie fell to the right. "You are but cubs, playing in the den of the beast king."
Even with Marshmallow helping them out it seemed as if the Ice Witches were endless. Amy realized with a lot of regret and slight annoyance that neither she, Will, the king, or the mermaid girls would be able to help them out. They were on their own.
Loren jumped up and attempted to bring his blades down on Carlos, the yellow ranger just managed to move out of the way. Then with his hind legs, equipped with sharp claws, he lashed out and kicked both Jay and Lonnie in the chest as they started to get up. Then with a quick twist he kicked Carlos in the chest hard as well.
Mal and Audrey moved in to try a double team attack, but this time Loren was fast enough to raise his blades and block the downward stroke of the dragon's eye staff and the edge of the elemental bow. He then knocked them back and slashed both rangers hard.
Evie watched as Loren turned toward her and she raised her mirror force shield, ready to try to block any attack he sent her way; regardless of whether it was the physical attack he had delivered at her friends or another energy attack with his blades.
Loren laughed at her. "There are more ways to deal with an opponent besides direct attacks blue ranger." He commented. With that he drove his blades into the ground and directed an attack that started toward her.
As Evie prepared to reflect that attack it suddenly diverged into two and then remerged in the back to strike her hard. She flew forward from the impact as Loren leapt toward her and slashed her with one of his blades hard.
She fell to the ground as her other five team mates gathered around her. "So what do we do now Mal?" Carlos asked their leader.
"Time for the triangle spark." Mal announced. "Quickly."
Audrey, Evie and Lonnie stood side by side. Jay and Carlos jumped onto the girl's shoulders. Mal then jumped up onto the boy's shoulders, reluctantly glad that Evie had talked her into cheerleading after all. They formed their blasters and then fired the Auradon Triangle Spark at Loren.
Loren placed his left blade on in back of the top of the right blade and then drew it down. That action drew up a large icicle, more like the size of a stalagmite, that blocked the attack and shot it right back at the six of them.
Even as the three girls fell backwards landing hard on their backs, Mal and the two guys fell forward. The boys took a hard landing on their right sides as Mal landed hard on her own back. Loren launched himself at the purple ranger and she let out a gasp of shock as she rolled out of the way.
"Mal, what's plan b?" Lonnie asked her friend.
"Plan b." Mal murmured as she rushed thoughts through her head. Only one came to mind. "Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie. Keep him distracted for us." The four nodded and she looked to Audrey. "Time for us to go big."
"Good idea." Audrey said to her. She just hoped it worked.
The four rangers did their best to surround Loren. He lashed his blades out at Carlos who blocked it with his earthquake claw daggers. Jay and Lonnie kicked him in the chest, knocking him backwards. Evie followed up with her own form of revenge; the quaking mirror force attack. It sent him sprawling to the ground.
As the four did that, Mal and Audrey activated their battlizers. Mal now was outfitted in what Alex thought of as her dragon mode while Audrey was outfitted in what he thought of as her princess mode.
"How very interesting." Loren allowed as he turned to face the two rangers. "But has anything changed besides your looks?"
"You bet it has." Audrey replied. "You should find this move just as familiar as your friend Freezadon did." She raised her hands and the pink crystals formed. This time she also removed the pink earrings and then tossed them all, along with the crystals themselves, at Loren. They all struck him hard and he fell back.
Mal powered up a dragon pulse of her own and tossed it at Loren. The tiger monster raised his blades to block the attack, but the pulse was strong enough to not only break through the ice stalagmite but his two blades as well. "What?" He gasped.
Now Mal shrunk her dragon's eye staff down to the size of an arrow and tossed it at Audrey. "Time for the dragon arrow strike and the draco meteor." She said to the brunette princess.
"Let's do it." Audrey agreed with a small laugh. She placed the dragon's eye arrow into the strings of the elemental bow and took aim the tracker of the ice barrier.
Mal powered up her energies and launched her draco meteor attack at Loren and struck him hard, he fell back several steps. Like her own zord's attack Mal knew that her powers would start to get weaker with every subsequent meteor attack. But if it worked out like she was hoping Audrey should be able to finish off the threat.
Audrey drew her bow back. She remembered when the turtles and Jennifer had helped them stop Maleficent and her power draining plan. Afterwards they had had a pizza party and Raphael's girlfriend Jennifer had said that Audrey's skills with the bow struck her as on par with a character named Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games series. The brunette princess didn't exactly understand the reference behind the comment but figured if the lithe blonde was saying that it was meant to be a compliment and had gladly accepted it. Now she took her best aim and fired the dragon's eye arrow straight at Loren. It collected power and energy as it soared right at the tiger monster and by the time it struck it delivered a powerful blow that destroyed him even as he would have otherwise been sent flying.
The two girls descended downward, each looking regal in their own way. Mal was more in line with the strength and confidence of a dragon while Audrey was more in line with the grace and regality of a royal. Then they both powered down their battlizers.
"Let's help our friends clear out the Ice Witches." Mal said to her team. They all nodded and echoed, "Right."
With all of them working together the Ice Witches didn't have a chance and they quickly turned tail and ran.
"Um, so what about the big guy?" Carlos asked with a somewhat nervous glance at Marshmallow.
"I thought Marshmallow might have either been corrupted or taken down." Anna answered as they started to approach the somewhat wary ice creature that Elsa had made as a guardian, and later care taker, of the ice castle she had made. "I guess I was wrong."
Aquiella and Amy somewhat cautiously approached him though the truth was he seemed almost as uncertain of the ranger team as they were of him. Finally though between Amy's empathic powers and natural awareness and Aquiella's empathic powers, more like telepathic when boosted by Amy and surrounded by water albeit frozen they were able to piece things together.
"He's been trying to stop the Ice Queen's minions from acquiring something on this mountain." Aquiella revealed to them. "Something that she doesn't want found. She overheard her former tracker talking about it with those generals we had misfortune of meeting earlier."
"Maybe it's that cold fire that Jason mentioned." Ellie suggested. "If it is, it could help us defeat the Ice Queen and free Arendelle and my mom."
"And maybe it will help us defeat the others too." Mal added. She still remembered their loss to the three ice barrier generals. That loss had actually propelled them into the caves where Freezadon had did a terrible number on her after she prevented Amy from getting that fate.
"Sounds like the best option we have is to go after it then." Ben replied.
Ellie nodded. "Keep the paths open for us if at all possible." She requested of Marshmallow who, at least to her, at almost seemed like a giant pet when she was younger. "We're going to retrieve whatever it is that Ice Queen doesn't want to be found and then we're going to take it with us to Arendelle." It seemed as if Marshmallow understood her as the large ice creature trudged back into the forest.
"It's nice to have a big somewhat scary monster on our side." Carlos noted. "Instead of having it trying to kill us."
"How do we find this…this whatever it is?" Audrey asked them. "We don't exactly have a map to show us the way."
"No, but we have something almost as good." Evie replied as she took our her magic mirror. The way she had used it as a weapon after becoming a power ranger it was easy to forget originally she had been given the item for a different purpose; to help locate Fairy Godmother's wand, which now served as Jane's source of ranger power when they had their grid fully operational, so they could take it to Maleficent. Now she held up that mirror. "Mirror mirror in my hand, take us to the what the Ice Queen most fears in the land." She recited.
"Hey, that was a pretty good one actually." Carlos remarked. He was usually the one to make jokes about spells that he thought had bad rhymes to it, even though as Mal pointed out on more than one occasion as long as the spell did its job then it didn't matter how it sounded, or looked in some cases.
"Come on guys, follow me." Evie said as she started to the left. The others were behind her as they hoped that whatever it was they were seeking would really help them to put the Ice Queen down, liberate Arendelle and save Elsa.