Always You

xi. Battle Preparations

Elsa

It was completely surreal. I was the one my kingdom trusted to protect them, and in a single moment that trust was demolished. My family was gone, taken God knows where, and I had let myself be overpowered by Hans and his manipulation yet again. I was still struggling, pushing against my own subconscious, to bring myself back to normal. To be out of my haze of self pity and loathing. As I was lapsing back, there was a knock at the window. I looked up, tears coming to my eyes in total ecstasy. Olaf and Sven stood at the window, concerned looks on their tired faces. I stood up, energy replenished, and let them in. They became a licking, blabbering mess and the three of us embraced quickly as I felt tears stream down my cheeks. Olaf walked over to Jack, mouth forming an O of shock.

"Hi! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" He cried, shaking Jack's hand. Jack looked at me in the mix of shock and amazement that people usually got when meeting Olaf for the first time.

"Hi, Olaf, I'm Jack." He replied, smiling a little. My heart soared to see his beautiful smile, but I knew I had bigger things to focus on.

"Olaf, where did you come from?" I asked, hoping he had seen Anna and Kristoff.

"The north mountain." He answered simply. Getting answers from Olaf was never a simple task, I'd come to find out.

"Okay, but when you were walking through town, did you see royal carriages without me in them?" I asked. He seemed to think for a moment, rubbing his frozen chin, before speaking.

"Yes! Over on the other side of town." He replied with huge excitement. I felt my stomach leap as I realized how far away that was and how long they had been gone... Anything could have happened. I grabbed Jack's hand, pulling him out the door as I called,

"Come on Sven, Olaf! We've got some people to save!"

I was a woman on a mission, hell bent to save my baby sister and end this rivalry with Hans once and for all. It needed to end, now. As I was running up the hall, Flynn stopped me. He eyed Olaf and Sven for a moment before speaking.

"Elsa, I can't find Rapunzel. There were some carriages that left earlier with Anna, but I don't know if Rapunzel went with her..." His brown eyes were large with worry, and I looked at Jack as I felt him tense up beside me.

"Rapunzel went with them." He admitted, looking anxiously from Flynn to me. I sighed. Then, I realized how much help Flynn could be. An ex-thief with biceps the size of a small child's head would definitely be a good weapon to have in our arsenal. I thought for a moment before replying, choosing my words carefully.

"Rapunzel and Anna went across town... But the thing is, they're in trouble. And I don't know aything besides that. We were actually on our way to go help them, if you'd like to come." I told the deflated looking man in front of me. Hearing that the love of his life was kidnapped was definitely something no guy ever wants to experience, and looking at his face I could clearly tell why.

"Of course I do! I couldn't let you go and risk your life like that, especially not if it means saving Rapunzel's life again." He cried, and I mentally made a note to ask him what he meant by 'again' some other time.  I hooked Sven up to a sleigh and Flynn, Olaf, Jack, and I climbed in. 

"Let's go, Sven." I said, rubbing my hands together to get the magic flowing. I could tell I would need a lot.

Jack

After the creepy yet charming snowman and the surprisingly personable reindeer showed up, Elsa had visibly brightened. Her energy seemed to flow from her pores as she rounded up supplies and Rapunzel's husband to help us. I could practically read her mind; the only thing on her mind was saving her sister and putting this Hans guy in his place. I had half a mind to put him there myself, but I knew Elsa wanted to have the biggest part in it, and I wondered what the whole grudge between the two was. I shuddered to think, since Elsa was generally a very easy person to get along with. Or, at least, she had been in the short time I'd known her. 

Even though there were much bigger things to focus on, all I could seem to do was look at and think about Elsa. Her hair, the way it flew in the wind and still looked perfect. Her eyes, the way the grew bigger with her emotions and seemed to give away her every thought. Her voice, full of authority and an adorable tinge of childhood. And her face, the pure beauty of it, the way I could read her expression like a book. She was amazing, inside and out. All I wanted was to be able to tell her, but I knew I couldn't right now. I knew she had too much on her mind to deal with some stranger's long-harbored crush. I sighed quietly.

The sleigh slammed across the ground, the reindeer (I think his name was Sven) running with a ferocity I had never seen before. The ride was bumpy, sure, but no worse than that first ride in North's sleigh with Bunny. Oh, no, nothing topped that. The memory almost made me laugh. Almost.

Flynn sat next to me, unknowingly, biting at his destroyed fingernails and asking Elsa endless questions. He wanted the answers to things she didn't have the answers to, and I was starting to grow impatient with his curiosity. Why couldn't he just leave her to think about a game plan?  I twirled my staff between my calloused hands, smiling at Elsa every so often. She returned the smile, a gleam in her eyes that wasn't there before. I wasn't sure what it was, and I kind of didn't want to find out.

Around an hour later, we were slowly pulling into the drive of a dilapidated old building that looked like it had been uninhabited for years but had a little upkeep every five years. It would have been charming, in different circumstances. I noticed a little shed close to us, and I could hear movement from inside it.

"Elsa, the shed." I told her, and she rushed over to it.

"The door's locked." She stated, pulling on the handle anyway, while Flynn walked around the back to look for another way in. I noticed a window and I peeked in to see Rapunzel and Kristoff together on the floor, both looking like they were asleep. Maybe they were drugged, I realized. Regardless, I called Elsa over. She looked at me, took a deep breath, and smashed her hand through the window. The glass shattered and she cried out in pain, while I stared at her in complete shock. She held up her hand, revelaing it to have come away unscathed. "I froze it." She said, shrugging her shoulder like that was obvious. She was crazy, in the best way. Kristoff and Rapunzel had looked up by now, shock on their flushed faces.

She continued to press her hands along the wall, freezing it so cold that the old building began to crumble away, something I had never seen or even thought about before. I couldn't imagine how much power it took, but finally there was a hole in the wall large enough for all of us to walk through.

"Elsa!" Kristoff cried, at the same moment Rapunzel screamed, "Eugene!" Both of them looked beaten down and tired, but completely ecstatic to see their saviors. As Kristoff and Elsa pulled away from their hug a little awkwardly, Elsa spoke.

"Where's Anna? And Hans?" She asked, looking to Kristoff. His eyes seemed to share the gleam that was in Elsa's eyes, and now I saw it for what it was. Determination. Thirst. Revenge. They were set on hurting this man who had nearly taken everything from them, and I was almost afraid as I realized that something awful was about to happen. 

"He carried her into the house. She was asleep, I think. I haven't seen anyone go in or out for a while, though." Kristoff said, and then added, "Please, Elsa, what I said... About the baby. I didn't know. And I didn't mean it like that..." He was begging her to forgive him, and she laid a cool hand on his forearm.

"I know, Kristoff. She'll forgive you, too. This is all going to be okay." She said, her voice so soothing and regal that I knew things would be okay. He looked as if he could cry, before rapidly blinking and then seeing the snowman and reindeer behind us.

"Sven! Olaf!" He rushed towards them, embracing them as best he could. "I'm so glad you're okay," He said softly. Elsa cleared her throat.

"Let's go save my sister." She said, her voice so strong that it gave me strength. I was ready, I just hoped Hans was.