Chapter Fifteen

History Lesson

ELSA

That night, Elsa spent most of her time tossing and turning in her bedroll. Not that Tracy noticed, snoring from the other end of the spacious tent they shared. Hours crawled by, and Elsa couldn't sleep a wink, her mind racing with thoughts on what Anna's vague message could have meant.

Was it by design that her sister's message had sounded so ominous? But if something was really wrong, Anna wouldn't have told Elsa to wait till morning. Which meant that it probably wasn't a matter of grave danger. But then what could it be?

Elsa surmised that it was likely something to do with Anna's little boy. She'd been there with Kristoff when Anna had given birth to Markus. She remembered the joy she felt when she saw Anna holding her child, and was filled with gladness for her sister and Kristoff. They'd found happiness and somehow had managed to build a family in the midst of chaos.

And for that, Elsa was truly happy for them. She remembered holding little Markus in her embrace, realising that she was now an aunt. What a strange feeling it'd been, knowing she and the others were slowly but surely getting older.

By the time Elsa had finished pondering Anna's message and reminiscing her sister's childbirth, the sun was beginning to peek from the eastern horizon. She woke Tracy, who mumbled something intelligible before going back to sleep. It took several rude prods and an icy hand on her neck to wake the sea witch up, and not without flustered cursing and swearing which coloured Elsa's cheeks pink.

After filling Tracy in on Anna's message the previous night, Tracy, in typical carefree fashion, had shrugged it off as something that could wait if Anna hadn't requested their immediate presence. Elsa supposed Tracy was right, but the difference was, she'd spent the night fully awake while her friend had slept soundly like a log.

The two dressed in riding attire and prepared for the long journey back to the capital where Anna and Kristoff were staying in one of King Aladdin's guest villas overlooking the city. It was definitely a far cry from the Shaer Basin outpost where Elsa had spent the better part of two years, but then again, Elsa had wanted to do something and go somewhere far away, to immerse herself in helping to train the newer members of the League and to oversee the outpost alongside Captain Gordon.

The ride to the city was a long one, as expected. Though Tracy and Elsa set off at about six, it wasn't till about close to ten in the morning that they reached the edge of town. By then, it was bustling with life. Locals streamed through the streets, riding camels, donkeys or simply moving on foot. Some were dressed simply, while many were dressed for labour, others as merchants, accountants, businessmen and whatever other occupations the kingdom of Agrabah had to offer.

Being back in the heart of civilisation felt strange. Elsa had gotten used to the quiet, simple life of running the outpost alongside her sorcerers and the Fifth Battalion. But Anna wanted the both of them here for something. She was going to find out what.

It took twenty more minutes to navigate through the many winding streets, the two girls careful not to trample the Agrabanians going about their daily lives. The city was so packed with people that Elsa thought they wouldn't arrive at the guest villa till noon, but soon enough, they made it out of the throng and rode up the gentle incline that set the king's range of villas above the city.

Dismounting, Elsa and Tracy handed the reins of their horses to the stablehands and headed straight towards the Queen's Guardsmen outside Anna's door.

"Your Royal Highness. Lady Tracy." The four guardsmen saluted in unison as they saw her approach.

Elsa waved away their salutes. "My sister sent for us?"

"Yes, Ma'am. Her Majesty is waiting inside." One of the guardsmen unlocked the villa's main door and opened it.

Curiosity eating away at her, Elsa stepped into Anna's residence with Tracy close behind her.

"So you're here too," Eleanor's voice came from the other end of the villa's hall.

Immediately on edge, Elsa spun, hands swirling with cold particles and ready to strike. She relaxed when she saw Deirdre with her sister, both lounging on one of the comfortable upholstered couches.

"A little tense I see," Eleanor smirked. "You thought I was here to attack your family? If I was going to do that, wouldn't I have already done it long ago?"

Scowling, Elsa retracted her sorcery. "What are you doing here?"

"We got a message from Anna, same as you I expect," Deirdre said.

"Did your message say what we're doing here?" Tracy asked. "Coz ours didn't."

"No," Deirdre said sourly. "I don't like it. I was supposed to be helping oversee an important joint training exercise between the League sorcerers, Desert Warlocks, Molcorrans and Agrabanians back at the Asad Outpost."

"I think they can manage without you for a change." Eleanor scoffed.

Deidre glowered. "Still."

"Oh!" Anna almost spilt coffee all over Tracy as she rushed out of the kitchen with a cup in hand and collided with her. "You're here. I thought I heard more voices."

"Anna, what's going on?" Elsa asked worriedly.

"Your message was pretty cryptic," Tracy said, evidently glad that her riding leathers hadn't been soiled.

"Sorry," Anna said. "I wanted to keep this under my hat till you got here."

Deirdre stood up from the couch. "Keep what under your hat?"

"You have another kid on the way?" Tracy asked.

"No, no," Kristoff emerged from the bedroom with Markus clinging to him and chortling. He whirled to his wife with a sharp look. "We don't, right?"

"No." Anna showed a half grin before turning to Markus. "Say hello to your aunts."

"Aunt Elsa!" Markus squealed, reaching for her.

Elsa couldn't help but smile as she carried the boy and hugged him. It'd been about a month or so since she'd seen him. "Have you been a good boy?"

Markus quickly lost interest in her, pointing at Tracy.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a cool hat, isn't it?" Tracy fiddled with her hat and held it out to Markus, who grabbed it with sticky fingers. "I want it back though, kid."

"Cute," Eleanor said. "But I don't think you dragged us all the way out here to have a little reunion with the boy, right? We saw him, what, a few months back?"

"I didn't ask you here for a little playtime with my son," Anna said. "I asked you here because the kids are already back."

"What?" Deirdre asked.

Talya and Peggy stepped out of the room behind Kristoff.

"Personally, I hate being called a kid," Talya pointed out.

Elsa's heart skipped a beat and her mouth hung agape. She'd all but given up hope they would return, and yet she could feel that hope rising once more, as it had when the descendants had first revealed their plan to restore history to what it once was. She studied Talya and Peggy's faces. Maybe they had found a way.

The scowl on Deirdre's face deepened. "Why are you back?"

"We promised we would come back when we knew the next step to dethroning the Last Emperor," Peggy said.

"Honestly, Last Emperor is a bit much," Talya muttered. "Humble guy, isn't he?"

"Focus," Anna said. "You told us you weren't going to reveal anything till we got everyone back."

"That's everyone alright, but…wait. Where's Janus and Melody?" Talya asked.

Still holding Markus, Elsa stiffened, her spine going rigid and features growing tight. She didn't want to dredge up all that pain again. The wound hadn't healed fully, if at all. In fact, all it left her was feeling incredibly bitter, hurt and angry - more at herself than at Janus.

"Melody left a couple of seconds after you did," Tracy explained for the benefit of the two descendants, retrieving her hat from Markus' fingers. "Said she needed to do it for herself, but she would be back when we needed her."

"Well now's the time," Talya said.

"And Janus?" Peggy asked worriedly, looking to Elsa. She'd entrusted Elsa with the task of filling Janus in on her sudden departure, partially because of the lack of time and the guilt she felt over having caused Janus to lose an eye.

Elsa swallowed the lump in her throat. Everyone was watching her. "Janus…left."

Peggy frowned. "What? Why?"

"He…" Elsa blinked away unformed tears. "He just vanished with the Witch Hunters. It's been close to two years since any of us have heard or seen any of them."

"Then we've got to get them back," Peggy said firmly. "With what we're about to attempt, it's all hands on deck."

"And what exactly are we about to attempt?" Kristoff asked, taking Markus back from Elsa's arms.

Talya swerved between the Warriors and waltzed over to a large dining table in the corner of the main hall. "Over here," she said as she placed a futuristic slab-like object on the table. As they all gathered around the table, something translucent materialised from the object, a blue-tinted light which depicted what appeared to be various reports and history texts.

"What is this?" Eleanor asked, reaching out to touch the light.

"Don't touch it," Talya slapped her hand away and received an angry growl in response. "It's a hologram."

"Holo-what?" Tracy looked lost.

"Hologram. Don't ask me to explain it," Talya shrugged. "This was always more up Val's alley."

"All you need to know is Val did a lot of research while we were here in the 19th century with all of you," Peggy explained.

"Val, as in my other descendant, right?" Anna asked.

"Yup. My brother," Talya beamed.

"My head hurts," Kristoff murmured as Markus laughed.

"When we got back, we pulled together important bits and pieces of history and tried to piece together anything that could help us," Peggy went on. "And we finally found something."

"Which is?" Elsa asked.

Talya tapped on the hologram - as she'd called it - and used two fingers to expand one of the reports' borders, bringing it to the forefront of everyone's attention. The words written on the report looked to be in a completely different and ancient language not known to Elsa, but as soon as Talya dragged her finger across a couple of the words, they changed their appearance to that of English.

"We managed to dig deeper into the Eternal King's past," Talya glanced around. "Does everyone here already know his history?"

"Maui told us before, back when we were trying to stop my predecessor from finding his prison deep beneath Ancient Hyutreno." Elsa said. Ingrid Grendstav had done all she could to find a way to extend her numbered days, even manipulating the Elemental Sorcerers and using their blood to unlock the secrets of the Eternal King's whereabouts on a map. That had been when the immortal demon had just been a footnote in their adventures. Now that the demon had bonded with Hans, it could be the very thing that enslaved all life on this world.

Talya shared a knowing glance with Peggy before going on. "Well, look at this." She selected another document from the translucent stack and enlarged it with the spread of her hands. A photographic image of a cave appeared before the Warriors, looming large and hovering over the table.

Tracy squinted at the image in confusion. "What…what are we looking at?"

"Val had to dig pretty damn deep to find this," Peggy explained. "But he managed to access some of New Hyutreno's archives and found several accounts of the Hyutrenon Liberators' battle against the Eternal King in Ancient Hyutreno four hundred years ago during the Age of Oppression."

"It's a story we heard before, right from Maui's lips," Anna said. "What are you trying to get at?"

"This," Peggy pointed at the holographic photograph. "This image on the cave wall was taken in one of the ruins of Ancient Hyutreno by archaeologists in the past. Recognise anyone?"

Elsa frowned as she narrowed her eyes to try and make sense of the image. It was very fuzzy and was of extremely poor quality, given the dark setting it was taken in. But on the smooth wall of the cave were murals - murals that depicted the battle that had taken place. There were murals of men and women entering battle, of elaborately dressed wizards and warlocks using magic, of the Eternal King's army striking back to defend their lord and master, and-"

Her eyes grew very wide, her hands numbed over as she stared at the centre of the image. It can't be.

"Is that…" Deirdre paused mid-sentence.

"Maui," Anna finished in a shocked whisper. "He was there."

There was no mistaking the carving. A hulking figure of demigod proportions with curly long hair and tattoos of Hawkean origin, wielding a fish hook larger than any melee weapon known to man. Elsa couldn't tear her eyes away from the image now that she saw it. The resemblance was too striking to ignore or explain away. There was no other explanation.

It is Maui.

"No wonder he knew so much about the Eternal King!" Anna snapped her fingers in realisation. "It all makes sense now!"

"But why? Why didn't he ever tell us he was there?" Kristoff asked.

"For some reason, he didn't want us to know," Elsa said grimly. "And he took his secret to his grave."

"Hans must have known all along," Eleanor growled.

"Know what?" Tracy asked.

"He knew. He had the Eternal King inside him and he knew that Maui was the only one who knew how to beat him," Eleanor thumped both hands on the tabletop, causing Markus to yelp. "Maui was the only real threat in the room and he knew it! So he killed him."

Elsa shook her head dolefully. If only she'd pieced it together herself sooner. It made complete sense now. Hans had played them all again, and they hadn't even realised it. They'd lost their best weapon without even knowing why.

"Hold on, I think I know what you're proposing." Deirdre turned to the descendants, a great scowl written on her face. "This is insane."

"What are you talking about?" Tracy asked.

"Care to share, sis?" Eleanor added.

Deirdre jabbed a finger at the descendants. "Why else do you think they're telling us about Maui now when he's gone?"

"You're right," Peggy said with a straight, solemn face. "It's crazy. As crazy as us travelling back in time to meet the Warriors."

A brief silence reigned as everyone individually evaluated what she'd said.

"Fair enough." Tracy shrugged. "But it's still weird as hell."

"No one's denying that," Talya agreed. "But it's the only viable way forward."

"And who determined that?" Deirdre demanded.

"We did," Peggy asserted firmly. "We spent weeks going over every possible outcome of our actions, taking into consideration what we know about the laws of time and how time travel works. This," she pointed at the image of Maui on the cave wall. "This is the best way. The only way."

"Is someone going to clue me in on what exactly we're talking about?" Kristoff asked irritably. Markus looked up at his father with wide eyes, and Kristoff hurriedly brought him back to the bedroom. Apparently he felt this was all too much for a young boy to take in.

"We're going to have to travel back in time to find Maui," Elsa surmised with a grim expression on her face. "And he's going to tell us how to defeat the Eternal King, just like he did before."

"You're right." Tracy turned to Deirdre. "When she puts it like that, it does sound bloody insane."

"But how exactly are we going to do this?" Anna gazed up at the hologram. "Do you have a plan?"

"Finding Maui is our plan," Talya said, and Peggy put a palm to her forehead.

"What she means to say is," Peggy cut in. "If we find Maui, we'll find out what's the next step. As of now, learning about Maui's experience is the best way we move forward."

"But to pull off an operation on this scale, we're going to need all the Warriors," Talya said with fervour as she glanced around. "Like Peggy said, it's all hands on deck."

Elsa sighed. "We're going to have to find Melody and Janus."

"And Jade?" Deirdre said indignantly. "We're just going to leave her? She was one of us too, even if she did try to kill us."

"We're not leaving her behind," Elsa said decisively, turning to Tracy who stood beside her. "Tracy?"

"Yeah. For the past two years, I've been working on finding ways to bring Jade back. To reverse whatever the Crimson Order did to her mind," Tracy said. "It was easy when they took over Janus, because he had a strong emotional anchor." She gestured at Elsa, who tightened her jaw.

"And what about Jade?" Anna asked.

"That's the thing," Tracy removed her hat sombrely. "She's got no one left. She and Jordan were orphans, and Jordan died trying to save her."

"She had us," Deirdre protested.

"But it wasn't enough," Tracy rebutted. "If our emotional ties to her had been enough, we would've broken whatever hold the Crimson Order had over her. But that got me thinking." She raised a finger. "Maybe I was approaching this the wrong way."

"What do you mean?" Kristoff returned from the bedroom. "We can bring Jade back without an emotional connection?"

"No." Tracy looked at him, placing her hat back on her head. "But we can bring Jordan back."

Elsa grimaced. She'd heard Tracy babble a little about her theories before, but it still made her feel cold to think about the implications of what the sea witch was suggesting. To bring someone back from the dead? It was far beyond any form of magic they'd ever encountered before, apart from the nightmarish abilities of the Eternal King.

"You're not serious," Talya gaped. "You know how to bring someone back from the dead?"

"Just hold on and let me explain," Tracy shushed the descendant. "It's a bloody difficult process, but there is a way to locate the remnant life essence of the departed. We can use it to find Maui in the past, and bring Jordan back from the dead temporarily to reach out to Jade and break her conditioning. It's going to help us kill two birds with one stone," she turned to Elsa. "You remember the time I died and you guys pulled me back from the endless abyss of darkness?"

Anna raised both hands. "Woah, when did that happen?"

"It was before you joined the Warriors," Elsa explained, giving Tracy a nod. "I remember. Kane almost killed you with his black magic."

"Right, but Melody and Moana dove right into the abyss and pulled me back to life," Tracy said. "That realm we were in? I think it holds the key to bridging the living and the dead."

"This is nuts." Kristoff looked to be in absolute disbelief of what he was hearing, and frankly, Elsa couldn't blame him. "You're suggesting there's a way to find Jordan in the afterlife and bring him back to the land of the living?"

"Yeah, temporarily at least," Tracy said. "But there's a catch."

Deirdre rolled her eyes. "Always has to be a catch."

"It's a bloody difficult spell, and I don't know how to do it. Yet," Tracy added the last word hurriedly. "But there's only one person I know who is aware of the spell's existence, and who likely knows how to execute it."

"Who?" Anna asked.

Tracy gritted her teeth. "My mother."