AUTHOR'S NOTE: I LIVVVVVVVVVVVVE! I'll explain more after the chapter.

CONTENT WARNING: Dark dark dark dark dark dark DARK. Also, I am NOT a historian, so take everything you're about to read with a grain of salt.

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29: CRAZY OR EVIL

Jack's heart leapt into his throat. "Insane asylum?" he choked.

Elsa bit her lip, nodding. She pointed to one of the slips of paper.

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Jack Frost. Sighted 4/2/1730. Stick, flying, white hair. A#3, P#12

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"A 3, P 112," she sighed. "Administrator number three, Patient number twelve."

Jack's head was spinning, his mind racing with conflicting thoughts and emotions. He could practically hear his own heartbeat, hammering violently against the inside of his ribcage, his throat tight with shock. It was—it couldn't—and yet—! Could it really—?

He sucked in a long, pained breath. Elsa turned to him again as he squeezed his eyes shut, then opening them and shaking his head with disbelief.

"Insane people," Jack choked. "Insane people could see me."

There was a pause.

Elsa bit her lip, shifting uncomfortably on the floor next to him.

"Well," she said carefully, "Either that, or… anyone that repeatedly claimed they'd seen Jack Frost was declared insane."

Jack's heart leapt into his throat again, a wave of nausea sweeping over him.

It was so much to try to take in all at once. For all those years of thinking he was invisible, the decades and decades of people walking straight through his body… and it turned out that there were people who could see him, after all.

Who were then tortured for it.

The Snow Queen let out a bark of bitter laughter, shaking her head as she stared up at the underside of the bedframe again.

"Patient," she gritted. "What a cynical term."

"What do you mean?"

"Patient implies healing. Like, that you're sick, and then you'll get some help, and you'll be released. But no one taken into one of those places ever came out. Patient?" Elsa scoffed. "Prisoner was more like it."

She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning her head back onto the floor. Jack turned over and looked at her. She had closed her eyes, as if in pain, and let out a long sigh.

"Getting that place shut down was one of my first major actions as queen two years ago," she said softly. "And I started up a bunch of programs to try to get those poor people transitioning back into society. I mean, they still need help, but… that so-called 'asylum' was just locking them up. The massive release didn't go over well with the Council, but I got it done."

Jack's eyes slightly widened with the sudden realization. As soon as she had been crowned, Arendelle's then-twenty-one-year-old queen had effectively declared war on her so-called Council, simultaneously challenging their power and exposing their foundationless prejudices. No wonder they despised Elsa so much.

She was a threat.

He smirked. Elsa, Queen of Arendelle, was a beautiful young woman who possessed both ideas, and the determination to make them become a reality. My, what could be more terrifying?

It was going to be fun, taking these guys down.

He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again, searching for the right words. After a few moments, he laughed breathily, shaking his head and looking to Elsa again.

"Okay," Jack stammered, "Remember how I said what a great queen you were?"

"Yes?"

He raised his eyebrows, folding his arms behind his head. "This is exactly what I mean."

She smiled weakly, turning and looking into his eyes again.

"Thanks," she whispered. "That—um, that means a lot to me."

Elsa bit her lip, glancing away as she considered his statement, like she was savoring his approval. After a few moments, she jumped.

"Anna's doing really well, though," Elsa reaffirmed suddenly, "I'm just here until she's better again. I don't care what the Council thinks; I'm not stealing my sister's crown."

Jack scoffed. "Because they think Anna's entire job as queen was to marry a royal guy?"

"Right."

He rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "I'm going to be honest though, Snowflake," Jack admitted, "If you hate being stuck here so much… why doesn't Kristoff just take over? I mean, he wouldn't have any problems defending Anna with the Council."

"Training people takes time," she explained, "And, the entire point was that we didn't want to give the Council the time to rip things apart. Somebody needed to fill in for Anna, and Kristoff thought I'd be better at it."

Jack's eyebrows jumped. "Kristoff thinks you're better than Anna?"

"No, just better than him," Elsa laughed, "He's a novice. Which is fine, but… well, I could just jump right back in without any real issues. I already know the ropes. But in a lot of ways, I honestly think that Anna's a way better queen than me. I'm better at identifying problems and solutions, and running reforms. I'm better at data. I'm… book-smart. But my sister is people-smart. She's very outgoing, and easy to love, and she can be—persuasive."

Jack huffed a chuckle, his face cracking into a grin. "Persuasive, or persistent?"

"Both?"

They both laughed, and Elsa shook her head. "See, though—that's what I mean," she said, "Those qualities, in this line of work, are essential. Anna is a great queen! I can make small-talk and such, and she still likes having my help when it comes to doing research and crunching numbers, but Anna's a natural with the people. Everybody loves her."

"I think people love you more than you realize, Snowflake."

Silence fell over the two of them again, and Jack stared back up at the map, reading more of the slips of parchment. It was clearly an endeavor that had taken the young Elsa some time; the handwriting changed subtlety from slip to slip, becoming more controlled and disciplined as she grew.

But never mind how much time this research had taken, or the sheer amount of research that the young girl with ice powers had done on him. It was the fact that there were accounts to be researched in the first place that wasn't sinking in.

Jack let out another long breath of air, closing his eyes as the realization hit him freshly again.

"People could see me," he choked.

"Well—of course people could see you, Jack!" Elsa exclaimed, propping herself up on an elbow. "I mean, mankind is generally oblivious, and you move really fast, but did you really think that you could be around that long without anyone noticing?"

"I—"

His voice trailed off, and Jack shook his head, his eyes wide with disbelief as he looked over the surface of the map.

Elsa looked to him, leaning towards him on her elbow.

"Jack… you're a legend," she whispered. "If it was really true that no one could see you, where do you think the legend could have originated from?"

The words sent him reeling again.

To discover that people could see him. To learn what happened to them, if they admitted that they did. To find out that, for years, and without his knowledge or even suspicion, a young girl with ice powers was searching for him, lying under her bed, hidden away behind the locked door of her bedroom.

For every question Elsa answered, another three were raised.

"Okay, so here's something I want to know," Jack blurted. "How did—how did you even figure out that you needed to search the records from insane asylums to find me, anyway? As a general rule, when people go searching for mythological figures, the first place they look isn't in 200-yr-old journals of psychiatric case studies."

She bit her lip, taking in a breath. "When I was nine years old, I—um," she explained. "Well—something happened."

"What do you mean?"

"Just—something," Elsa said quickly, giving her head a quick shake, "Don't worry about it. But I had to use my—I mean, I used my powers," she corrected. "Well, when my father found out, he got upset, because he thought I wasn't trying to control them. So, he wanted to—um—he wanted to try to motivate me a little more."

Jack suddenly felt blood rushing to his face in anger. His eyes narrowing, and using every ounce of willpower that he possessed, he pulled in a long breath.

"What kind of—motivation—are we talking about, here?" he said carefully, struggling to control his voice.

"We went on a little field trip to the library." The Ice Powers Girl rolled over, facing him and leaning on her arm. "He pulled out the oldest volume of insane asylum records to show me what happened to people that were—dangerous. I mean, the actual case studies, with all the interviews and accounts."

She bit her lip, pausing to take in another breath. Jack saw with horror that her beautiful deep eyes were filled with shame again, and she shook her head slightly, continuing.

"He told me that he loved me, and that he didn't want to live to see me chained up in one of those places. So, I…" Elsa closed her eyes, rolling onto her back again and staring up at the underside of the bedframe. "I… um… I needed to learn to control my powers."

Jack's blood boiled.

"You mean," he gritted, "To suppress your powers."

"Jack—"

"—Well, that's just ducky!" he sputtered, "What inspirational parenting!"

"He was doing his best."

"It WASN'T VERY GOOD!" Jack yelled suddenly, slamming his hand against the bedframe.

CRACK!

Light shot out across plank of wood, frost exploding over the corner of the map in sharp spikes and fusing the strips of parchment into a thin layer of rough, uncontrolled crystalline ice. Jack grimaced, and glanced to the side. Elsa had startled back, and he suddenly realized to his horror that she was—cowering from him.

Jack's stomach twisted.

Closing his eyes, he tried to focus, gently placing his palm on top of the ice and pulling off his fingertips like he had in the library. Instead of leaping off of the parchment, however, the ice stayed put, another layer of frost swirling out slowly from his fingertips.

It was no use. He couldn't think about fun now.

Not with Elsa looking so afraid of him.

She shifted uncomfortably on the floor again, crossing her arms over her chest. Jack pulled in his breath, looking to her, her body suddenly tense on the ground underneath the bed. Watching intently, he saw her bite her lip, nervously taking in a breath.

"Please don't insult my father," she said quietly.

Jack's face drained of color. Swallowing hard, he opened his mouth to apologize, but no sound came out.

He coughed, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry," he choked, "I didn't—"

"—It's okay."

They laid together underneath the bed in silence for a few moments. Elsa relaxed slightly, holding her hands together over her stomach.

"And, I have reason to believe that my mother started having some… conversations with my father. Soon after that," she added. "But my father didn't hate my powers; he was just worried about me. Now, if my grandfather had been alive—!"

Jack's eyes widened slightly, remembering Olaf's remarks in the throne room the day before.

"Not a big fan of magic?" he asked.

The Ice Powers Girl bit her lip, suddenly pained. Then, she shook her head.

Jack Frost didn't respond.

"Anyway…" Elsa started again quietly, changing the subject back. "It was—um, it was one of the names. In that first volume's index, when my father was showing me. I recognized it."

Jack looked to her and raised his eyebrows, silently asking the natural question. Seeing it, she drew in her breath.

"Gerd Karl Borstad?" she prompted.

The name had no meaning to him. Jack stared in blank confusion at the underside of the bedframe, and then suddenly realized that Elsa was turning over towards him, reaching for something above his head.

He jolted, scooting to the side and flipping over onto his stomach. Looking to where she was reaching, it was then that he realized that, at the base of the headboard, there were half a dozen piles of books. In the faint light, he hadn't even noticed them there before; they were stacked in such a way that they blended almost perfectly with the dark wood of the headboard extending down to the floor behind them. They, like the map, had been hidden in plain sight.

Man, Queen Elsa was good at concealing things.

The Ice Powers Girl carefully took a thin book off the top of the pile closest to him, placing it on the floor between them. Looking at it, Jack realized that it wasn't even really a book at all, but a fragile, yellowed pamphlet, held together and mended from use by string. The print upon it was heavily faded, but in the candlelight, he could still make out the title.

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DIALOGUE ON BEYINGS OF THE FANTASTIK

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"This is the earliest written document referencing a 'Spirit of Winter' that I could find," Elsa said quietly. "Originally published in 1583. This is a reprint from the mid-1600's."

She flipped through the pamphlet's worn pages, finally coming to a place within it that opened almost automatically. She pushed it across the Jack, and he took it. Sure enough, at the top of the page, there was a faded reprint picture of a thin boy with a staff, standing atop a tree branch. His eyes fell onto the title underneath it.

The Wyntr Wandryr

After staring at it, dumbstruck, for a few moments, he shook his head vigorously. His mind racing, he let out a sharp bark of laughter and looked back to Elsa.

"Dialogue, though? Dialogue with whom? Don't tell me he pulled a Galileo," Jack chuckled darkly. "That's a really fast way to get yourself locked up."

"No," she laughed, "No mockery of super-high political or religious figures involved. It was his dialogue with the Evening Orb. You know—very symbolic, if you—"

"—MANNY TALKED TO THIS GUY?!"

Elsa pulled in a long breath, her eyebrows raising slightly. "Alright," she said carefully, "Maybe it wasn't symbolic."

"At some point here, you're really going to need to start taking me literally."

"Apparently." She flipped the pamphlet back to its front cover, pointing to the name. "But Gerd Karl Borstad—he was a professor, and he had a lot of publications out on interpretations of mythology. But, in his personal life, he was an avid stargazer."

Jack shrugged. "I guess that would explain how he could spend so much time with the moon."

"I suppose it could. I'll have to reread this… now that I know his introduction wasn't necessarily symbolic," she admitted.

Jack shrugged, smiling wryly as he looked back down at the yellowed pamphlet. After a few more moments of staring at it—dang, it was old—he let out his breath, shaking his head again and glancing back to Elsa.

"I just—I just can't believe it," Jack laughed bitterly. "Manny talked to people."

"Well—apparently, Professor Borstad thought so," she sighed. "He published this pamphlet, and for a while, it wasn't particularly controversial. Everyone thought that it was supposed to be some sort of poetic commentary on ancient mythology, or something. You know—kind of like some sort of modernization. An artistic thing. But then, people started figuring out that he actually believed what he'd written. As you can imagine, he lost his credibility, his freedom, his family…"

Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head. Jack swallowed hard, fighting the new wave of nausea sweeping over his body.

"Because he saw Jack Frost," he choked.

"Yes," she said quietly. "But it wasn't seeing you that really caught everyone's attention. It was the Sky Elf story."

"Sky Elf?"

Elsa twisted around on the floor, pulling back the booklet's cover and flipping through its old, worn pages. Finally, she shoved it to Jack, pointing.

"The Sky Elf," she said quietly. She then daintily flicked her hand through the air, gesturing. "With his golden sky-rivers…"

Jack's eyes widened as he stared at the sketch. A tiny, round man with spiked hair in a cloud, the long ribbons twisting and extending out from it…

"Sandy," he breathed.

A wave off confusion swept over Elsa's face. "Who?"

"Sandy! The Sandman! That's him!" Jack exclaimed. "He could see him?"

"If you say that's the Sandman," she shrugged, "Then yes."

"But why—how—!" Jack shook his head. "This professor—why'd they lock him up?"

"Because he refused to deny the things that he'd seen."

Jack swallowed hard. Then, he shifted himself onto his elbow under the bed, leaning his chin on his fist as he flipped through more of the pamphlet's pages with his other hand. Surely enough, there they were—the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny, followed by a few of the non-Guardians, including Cupid, the Leprechaun, and—

The last page of the pamphlet fell open in front of him. Reprinted and faded from an etching, in the top right corner, there was a tiny picture of a tall, eerily graceful man in a long black robe.

Jack's heart leapt into his throat, and he abruptly slammed the booklet shut.

He knew who that was. Silently pleading that the Ice Powers Girl hadn't noticed his reaction, his hand still shaking, he then carefully picked the pamphlet up, turning it over to its front. He bit his fist, seeing the author's name again.

"So, they locked him up," Jack said. "Because he wouldn't deny something he saw."

"Basically, yes."

He scoffed, gently pushing the booklet back to her. "Well, that's just great."

She took it, placing it on top of the nearest pile of books again. "I actually looked up the court case," Elsa sighed, "It's in the records. They tried him for heresy—you know, for publishing the Dialogue. There was a lot of witch-hunt type of stuff going on at the time. When it became clear that he was going to lose, his lawyer plead insanity."

"Heresy?" Jack sputtered. "For seeing me? How on earth does that count as heresy?"

"What else would they drag him in for?" Elsa retorted. "The people needed something to pin on the poor man. And I suppose—well—you know how society is, Jack."

"What do you mean?"

"Anyone that can see, or feel, or do things that others can't is considered to be either crazy or evil," she said quietly. "I mean, look—look at me. Look at how people reacted to my having ice powers."

Jack fell silent again, pressing his lips together. She hadn't actually told him how people reacted—well, apart from her parents and the counsel, anyway—but he didn't want to know.

It wasn't hard to guess.

He exhaled slowly, flopping over onto his back again and crossing his arms over his chest, staring back up at the colorful threads across the map. There were still so many questions left unanswered…

He took in another deep breath.

"I guess it shouldn't surprise me that some people would have—well—gifts. For seeing us," Jack said quietly. "It's just the reaction that I can't swallow. You'd think that people would value someone more for having a gift like that, but instead they—"

"—Tie them down, shut them up, and lock them away," the Snow Queen gritted. "Correct."

Jack's stomach twisted again. "But why?"

"It's easier."

"Easier?" he choked, "Easier than what?"

"Easier than having to deal with someone being different."

Jack bit his lip, staring at the hundreds of pieces of parchment across the surface of the map above them, shadows dancing across its worn surface from the flickering tea candle in the spoon. In his peripheral vision, he saw Elsa shift on the floor, readjusting her dress and closing her eyes.

"What would this world look like if everyone stopped always going for the easiest choice?" she breathed.

The pain in her voice was almost palpable. Silence fell over the two again, and Jack turned over slightly to look at her, his mind racing, trying to think of what to say.

"It would be beautiful," he whispered.

Elsa nodded. She set her jaw, sucking in a deep breath. "Yeah. It would be," she gritted. "But instead, it's dark, and dank, and murky, and filled to the brim with pain and terror and hatred!"

CRACK!

A clump of ice shot out of her chest, smashing into the bedframe above her and shattering. Jack startled, jolting with shock at her sudden passion, and as the soft shower of ice particles fell around her, Elsa sucked in her breath, clasping her hands into her stomach. Her chest rising up and down rapidly, she gasped for breath, squeezing her eyes shut.

"I—I'm sorry," she choked. "I didn't mean to—"

"—You don't have to apologize."

Elsa swallowed hard, looking worried. Jack rolled onto his side, chuckling under his breath.

"I literally did the same thing two minutes ago, Snowflake. Give me a break."

Her eyes widened slightly with the realization. After a few moments, the Fifth Spirit giggled, a shy, embarrassed little smile spread across her face. Jack's heart melted.

Ooooooh, that smile.

He rolled over onto his back again, letting out a bark of laughter. "We haven't been doing too well on the controlling ice powers thing today—have we?"

"Apparently not."

"Some deep breathing or something might be a good idea," he joked, "You know, before we freeze the whole castle by accident?"

Elsa fidgeted with the fabric on her skirt, looking down and blushing. Jack raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise.

Ouch.

Lucky guess.

Seeing her sudden embarrassment, he chuckled bitterly, shaking his head.

"A lot of it, though—with the anger thing—it's just a matter of knowing what makes you angry," he admitted. "People hurting kids—that's what really sets me off. More than anything else."

"Hurting kids?" she asked.

"Yeah."

Or you, Jack thought. People hurting you.

She was lost in thought, her eyes slightly narrowed with concentration. Then, shifting and adjusting her dress again, her deep eyes softened once more.

"How society treats people who are different. That's what gets me," Elsa sighed. "The cruelty. On their own, people are usually pretty decent, but put them into a big group, get them a little scared, and…"

Her voice trailed off, and she bit her lip again.

"I just…" She closed her eyes. "I just don't understand it, Jack."

They lay on the ground in silence again, the candle on the spoon flickering between them. After a few moments, Jack smiled wryly, glancing in her direction and shrugging.

"Basically, people are horrible," he said casually.

Elsa jolted slightly at the statement with a grin, shaking her head. Then, her smile faded again, and he watched as she looked back up to the map, her expression grave.

He pulled in another breath.

"This world could be a really beautiful place," Jack said softly. "It's true. But, at least for right now, the world can be—pretty awful. You know, with so much hatred and corruption in it."

As he watched her, Jack saw her hard expression shift. She relaxed back down slightly, her eyes deep with sadness.

"But I guess that's the challenge… isn't it?" she sighed.

"What is?"

She shifted uncomfortably on the floor, the candlelight dancing across her pointed features and sending flickering shadows across the contours of her face. Then, with a weak hint of a smile, she turned and looked to him, raising her eyebrows slightly.

"Learning the see the beauty anyway," Elsa whispered.

Jack's breath caught.

The young queen relaxed back onto the floor, looking to the map above her again and then closing her eyes. Her expression was pensive; pained, but with the tiniest hint of hope in it as she descended into her own thoughts, her thick braid thrown carelessly across the floor and the cloth of her icy gown sparkling in the light. She had the body of a twenty-three-year-old, along with the passionate, fiery spirit of someone who had risen to power so young, but Elsa spoke like an ancient. It made perfect sense, why this girl would be chosen to become the Fifth Spirit of the Enchanted Forest. But after having been through so much …

The Guardian of Fun folded his arms behind his head, staring up at the underside of the bedframe. The last two lines of the conversation were playing on repeat in his mind.

The world can be pretty awful. With so much hatred and corruption in it, he heard his own voice say.

But I guess that's the challenge... isn't it? Elsa's responded. Learning to see the beauty anyway.

Jack looked again to the young woman beside him. She laid on the ground underneath the sprawling map, lost in thought, the ice particles in her braid sparkling in the candlelight.

He could see it.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I LIIIIIIVE! Also, I'm going to start putting the Author's Notes at the END, because they're getting longer and longer and more distracting. Hope this works for everybody. As for my absence—so sorry! If you count tomorrow (ONE—MORE—EXAM—GAUGH!), in the last two weeks, I've had three enormous exams and a big conference, where I presented some laser research. The conference was awesome, but I've REALLY missed the insanely supportive world of fanfic. Did I ever tell 'yal how FANTASTIC you are?! BECAUSE YOU ARE. (Hooray!) Thanks for reading, thanks for being awesome, and I hope you have a fantabulous day!