Well, it wouldn't be me if my first proper venture into a new fandom wasn't some good ol' family fun now would it? And yes, by family fun, I do mean this fic will contain a considerable amount of incest. Consider thyself warned. Don't like it, don't read it. Flames will be used to toast vegan marshmallows.

No spoilers (or canon compliance) for Frozen II. It's an AU post the first Frozen, with some established Elsanna and a surprise survivor.

-IEA-

So cold...

The water broke above her head and she did her best to breathe, the icy temperature making it hard to get any air as her body tried to shut down. Iduna blinked to try and clear her vision, but could see very little. She looked around all the same, using what little breath she had to call out for her husband.

"Agnarr!"

He was nowhere, and when Iduna foolishly ducked beneath the surface again there was still no sign of him. Frantic and losing strength, Iduna swam with the current; she didn't have it in her to fight it, even without the stormy weather. The land she saw might have been a hallucination, but survival urged her on all the same. When sand stuck to her hands she pulled herself up, gasping for air and soaked, frozen to the bone.

She called out for her husband again, a last attempt at hope that he'd hear her through the storm and waves and find his way to land like her. Not that Iduna had any idea where she was. Or how she might get home. Or even ifshe could home.

Arendelle didn't look exactly as she remembered. There were still cobbled streets and cliffs overlooking the docks that led out to the open sea. When Iduna's eyes found their memorial site, she saw two new stones in the Royalty section. Her heart skittered with panic in her chest - had something happened to her children? - before the realisation hit her. Those were stones for she and Agnarr. Despite exhaustion and a need to get over to the castle, Iduna felt herself drawn to the graveyard.

Her fingernails were dirty and rough as she ran her hand over her husbands stone, sending out silent thoughts to her lost husband. She'd mourned him for many moons now, though she didn't know for certain how long it had been.

The rooves of all the buildings were dusted with ice, glittering under the moonlight. It reminded Iduna of her daughters bedroom sometimes, those rare times she was happy after they seperated the girls. What had happened in all the years since?

Now she was looking, Iduna realised the new flags were raised. A new queen had been crowned. She'd missed her daughters coronation.

How was Elsa coping? They hadn't trained her perfectly, Iduna admitted to herself - trying to understand and control her powers had taken precAlicet, but they'd never truly been able to contain them and Iduna feared endlessly the whole time they were away that something had gone wrong, that Elsa's magic had caused some kind of devastation. So far, Arendelle seemed to be standing.

It didn't occur to her right away, just something niggling at the edges of her mind until she reached them.

The gates were open.

It was night, and the castle doors were closed, most of the lights off. So the gates weren't open for some kind of event. They were just... open.

Feeling almost like an intruder, Iduna knocked. There used to be guards at the front at night, but not now. The sound of her knuckles on the door seemed to echo through the courtyard, and it took a moment or two for somebody to actually open the door, visibly suspicious of the late night visitor.

"Who are you?"

Knowing she mustn't look much the part, Iduna straightened up.

"It's me. Queen Iduna."

"Nice try, but the kingdom lost Queen Iduna more than three years past. Guards! Remove this woman!"

Seeing two burly, uniformed men approaching, Iduna managed to slide in under the doormans arm.

"No, wait! It really is me!"

Without the perfectly groomed hair and perfectly tailored clothes, with the struggle for survival wasting her body away for months at a time and no regular access to the finest bathing supplies, Iduna didn't think she'd be that recognisable. But still, there must be someone she could convince.

"I really will have to insist you-"

About to try and dodge the approaching guards, Iduna's panic was interrupted by another voice.

"Iduna? Is that you?"

"Alice! Yes, yes, it's me!"

The tailor who Iduna had known for some twenty years, who made her pretty dresses and told her funny stories... she recgonised Iduna.

"Guards, stand down! I doubt our current monarch would appreciate you ousting their mother from the castle forcibly. Come now, let's get you cleaned up and-"

Though she desperately needed it, Iduna shook her head.

"No, no, I need to see my girls!"

Everyone around her exchanged several loaded looks, before Alice patted her arm.

"They'll be sleeping. Come now, lets make sure they'll recognise you. It gets cold here at night, your hands are freezing my dear."

There was something Iduna wasn't being told, though the portrait in the hall that was clearly a coronation painting for Elsa said that she'd made it those three years to be crowned, and there stood Anna at her side, smiling brightly. Something about Anna was different, and there was a funny little snowman in the painting too...

Alice shooed her into a bedroom and insisted she get a hot bath while suitable clothes were found, and one look at her frail frame had Alice insisting she get a meal too.

"Nothing too heavy, I doubt she's eaten well for a time and we do not wish to make the queen unwell."

Iduna soaked her chilled bones in the hot water and scrubbed herself clean, wrapped in something soft and comfortable while Alice fussed with her hair and nails, insisting she'd need to see the right people in the morning for 'proper restoration'.

"At least there's a little colour in your cheeks now. Eat up!"

Feeling like a little girl being told to eat her vegetables, Iduna put away as much as she could fit in her shrunken stomach before pushing the bowl away. She'd always said a lady finished her meals, but it really was richer and more plentiful than she'd eaten for a while, and she couldn't eat another mouthful.

"Well, there's work to be done, but at least nobody will fail to recognise you now."

Nodding, Iduna turned to the hovering aide.

"I want to see my daughters."

She'd let them make sure it was definitely her - which was the only reason some of them had left Alice to clean her up, she was certain - and now Iduna wanted to see her daughters.

But again, there were looks exchanged and awkward silence followed before excuses were made.

"Like I said, they'll be sleeping. Let's get you set up to rest first-"

"No!"

Hoping the movement didn't jostle her stomach to the point of vomiting, Iduna got up and ran, almost stumbling in the soft slippers she wasn't yet used to. Even after years away Iduna remembered her way around the castle, and since she wasn't sure if Elsa would have taken the master suite that once belonged to them, Iduna went straight to Elsa's bedroom. The door was open, and while it still contained a bed and little personal effects, it was empty.

"My lady Iduna, I must insist you-"

Ignoring them, Iduna headed toward Anna's bedroom. She saw a few night staff, all strangely wearing something over their ears. For warmth, she assumed. She turned on to the corridor for Anna's door, and then she heard something... strange.

Muffled whimpers and thuds, punctuated by a scream seconds later that made Iduna fear somebody was hurting her daughter. Gripping the door handle, she threw open the door and was greeted by something she could never have prepared for.

A stark naked Anna didn't even notice her at first, all attention clearly taken by the head still between her legs, and Iduna would know that ethereal shade of platinum anywhere.

Elsa.

Anna's eyes opened at last, a smile crossing her face before her gaze drifted over, and she screamed for a whole new reason when she saw someone standing in the door. Elsa looked up, eyes widening and the fabric beneath her hands seeming to bloom with snowflakes out of nowhere.

"Mom!"

-IEA-

Ooooh, this should be fun! Future chapters should hopefully be longer too, but intros are hard.