The Frozen Hearts

By Michael Weyer

THEN

It was quiet. It was cold. It was comforting.

That was Elsa's feelings as she walked about the main chamber of the palace she had created. Light flashed about the icy walls, reflections giving it a wonderful glow. Elsa's fingers slid over a table, letting the edges curl into a nice sculpted design. She nodded as she walked about, her white gown trailing on the ground. She felt so…free, so open, more than in years. All that time of hiding herself away, the fear of letting herself know. None of it mattered now, it was a giant weight lifted off her and she was loving it.

She felt a pang for Anna but brushed it aside. She was better off without Elsa around. She could be the queen their people needed, not a…freak. No, Anna would be better off and Elsa was better off here. Completely by herself.

"I love what you've done with the place."

Elsa whirled around as a cloud of purple smoke formed before her. It faded to show a gorgeous brunette woman in a tight black dress with flowing red cape. Elsa frowned as she recognized her. "You're…Queen Regina."

"You remember." The woman paced about. "Good to know."

Elsa stared at her. "How did you get here?"

"The same way you created all this." Regina extended her arms. "Magic." She snapped her fingers to pull a chair out for her to sit in. She waved a hand to allow a blanket to appear on it before sitting. "Not going to offer refreshment? Or have you not gotten around to thinking how you're going to eat?"

Elsa brushed aside the realization she hadn't considered that to cross her arms. "Why are you here?"

"You," Regina answered as if it was obvious. "You, my child, are quite the interesting person. All that power, so much in you and yet so little control over it. You managed enough skill to create this palace and yet still so raw." She tapped a finger to her ruby lips. "If you could harness it properly, the possibilities of your power are…endless."

"Why?" Elsa asked. "Why would you care?"

Regina shrugged. "Someone taught me. I feel like passing it along. You do need to properly learn, my dear. Right now, you're going on instinct but that's not enough. Harness this properly…and you need not fear anyone ever again."

Elsa bit her lip as she looked at her hand. She'd been comfortable here, alone. But part of her said Regina was right. To stay here without truly understanding her powers wasn't the best move. She'd never had anyone to teach her anything before. Maybe…maybe this was just what she needed. "Okay…where do we start?"

Regina's smile was bright and clear and had Elsa been anyone else, she would have felt a greater chill at the sight.

NOW

"I still say we should leave them be."

"We can't just leave them here."

"What if they're dangerous?"

"Then we really can't leave them be."

"We could always…"

"Unlike you, I don't kill in cold blood!"

"You know I'm not really a lizard, right?"

The sound of the two female voices slowly roused Emma from unconsciousness. She tried to rub at her head but she couldn't move her arms. Opening her eyes, she realized she was lying on the ground in some sort of forest of…mushrooms?

She blinked before realizing that yes, those were mushrooms the size of small trees surrounding her. She sat up, wincing as she felt the ropes tied around her. She looked over to see Regina slowly coming awake as Elsa lay between them, both bound just as Emma was. Emma looked up to see two other women looking at them. One appeared to be young, barely 20, dressed in a light pink dress with a darker leather jerkin over it and a sword in a scabbard on her back, her blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. Her companion seemed about the same age, black hair falling to her nape and dressed in brown leather with green patches about it, dark boots and a long coat with a cap atop her head.

"What the hell?" Regina groaned as she sat up. "Who are you two?" she immediately demanded.

The blonde girl removed the sword from her back and held it ready. "We'll be asking the questions," she said in a clipped British accent. "Who are you and how did you get here?"

"Right now, we don't even know where here is," Emma snapped as Elsa began to wake up. "Listen, I'm Emma Swan, this is Regina, that's Elsa. We…well, we sort of…fell through a portal here."

Instead of obvious doubts, the two other women seemed just suspicious. "A portal?" the blonde girl asked. "From where?"

"Storybrooke, ever heard of it?"

"No," the blonde answered. "But passages to Earth are quite rare and mostly protected."

"It wasn't intentional." Emma looked to Regina. "You said this was going to be a wasteland!"

"I thought it was!" Regina snapped back. "After the Curse, the Fairytale Kingdom should have been wiped out!"

"This is Wonderland," the dark-haired woman said.

Emma stared at her before scoffing. "Wonderland? As in Alice?"

The blonde immediately moved her sword right in front of Emma's face. "How do you know my name?" she hissed out.

Emma just blinked. "Seriously? You're…Alice? In Wonderland?"

"Yes," the girl bit out.

"Hi," the other girl said, waving a gloved hand. "I'm Liz but people call me Lizard."

Emma was shaking that off as she looked to Regina. "I thought that portal was going back to your home."

"It was," the Evil Queen answered, confused. "I don't see how…" She stopped and looked to Elsa. "Of course. You."

"What?" the younger woman asked with a frown.

"Your magic entering the portal threw us off completely! You sent us here!"

Elsa just stared at her. "Are you serious? Are you so utterly delusional that you blame absolutely everyone else for what happens?"

"Only when it's their fault!"

"Will you two shut up!" Emma hissed. "And for the record, Regina, you do share a lot of blame for all this!"

"Oh, really, Ms. Swan? You think me to blame for us being here? Gold was the one who marked me for the wraith!"

"After you cursed the damn town!"

"Hey!" The three women looked up to see Alice pointing her sword at them. "Right now, all of you are going to answer me as to what you're doing here and what connection you have to the Red Queen."

"The Red Queen?" Regina frowned. "She's dead."

"She's not."

"She is. I buried her myself."

"Ah, I think you're thinking of the Queen of Hearts," Liz piped up. "This is the Red Queen, totally different."

Emma looked to Regina. "Wait, you've been to Wonderland?"

"Not quite," Regina answered her. "I just have…connections here."

"Did the Red Queen send you?" Alice demanded. "Or Jafar?"

"Jafar?" Emma rolled her eyes. "Oh for…you're telling me we have Aladdin in this too?"

Alice moved forward, sword raised. "I will not ask again…"

"Oh to hell with this." Elsa concentrated and with a whisp of white, the ropes about her hands froze solid. She fell back to shatter them and rolled to her feet, waving her hands to freeze Alice and Lizard's feet to the ground. Both yelled and tried to escape but Elsa quickly moved to take away Alice's sword. She began to cut at Emma's bonds, the bounty hunter nodding in gratitude as she rubbed her wrists.

"Hey!" Regina called out. "How about me?"

Elsa glared at her but Emma sighed. "I don't like it either, Elsa. But we do need her."

"She can rot for all I care."

"Okay, she screwed you over with the curse…"

"It was more than that," Elsa snapped. "She…" She shook her head. "I won't forgive her for what she did to me."

"Maybe," Emma allowed. "But we still need her help to figure this out." Elsa looked at her but then reluctantly cut Regina's bonds, allowing her to stand up.

Emma turned to Alice and Lizard. "Listen up. I don't know who you two are or what you're doing here. But we're not the bad guys." She paused. "Well, okay, me and Elsa aren't. We just landed here, we need to find a way to get back home. We don't want to hurt you, we're not enemies so if we let you go, can we just talk this calmly?"

Alice and Lizard exchanged looks and a slow nod. "Okay, Elsa, let them go."

The blonde girl frowned but nonetheless waved her hands to melt the ice around the two women, letting them stumble free. Emma took the sword from Elsa and handed it over to Alice. The girl yanked it away, staring before slowly placing it back into the scabbard on her back.

"Okay," Emma began in a calm voice. "Now to start again. We came from a place called Storybrooke, we were sucked through a portal here. For the record, what I know of Wonderland comes from a story written like a century ago about a girl named Alice who journeyed here." Alice was thrown at that as Emma went on. "Right now, we just need to find some way back to our home. You know anything like that?"

Alice and Lizard exchanged looks. "I do believe them," Lizard said. "I know liars pretty well, they're telling the truth."

Alice pursed her lips before sighing. "All right. Maybe we can help each other. I'm looking for a friend of mine, the Knave. He's been captured by the Queen. If anyone knows a way to a portal to your home, it would be her."

Emma nodded. "Fine. We're partners for now."

Regina leaned in to whisper. "I don't trust them…"

"You're not a shining judge of character here," Elsa snapped.

Alice moved to Emma. "If you turn on us…"

"We need each other," Emma stated. "So how about we work our issues out on the road?"

Alice nodded and looked to Lizard. "Lead on." The thief smiled as she began to lead this odd group toward a road and Emma had to wonder once more how her life turned out so bizarre.

Ruby set down the tray of steaming mugs before the occupants of the table. "Granny still makes a great cocoa," she smiled, clad in a slightly more demure version of her usual outfit, longer pants and a red vest over her white shirt. "Always a help."

David nodded as he took the cup to sip it. Mary Margaret was looking at the table stunned while Henry was also quiet. "We'll get them back," David said. "Gold has to know a way."

"You think he'll help us?" Mary Margaret asked. "He's the reason they're gone in the first place!"

"There's a way," David pressed.

"He's right," Henry said. "My mom doesn't give up or Regina. I'd know if something bad were happening to them."

Mary Margaret sighed. "We still don't have a way to get at them. If the Homeworld is gone like she said it was, they could be in a wasteland."

"Hey!"

The three were jarred a bit at the sudden voice echoing across the table. They looked around as it called again. "Here!" David looked down at the tray on the table and saw a shimmering face in the glass. He brushed aside a napkin to stare at a familiar face. "Holy…Sidney, is that you?"

The figure of the man they'd known as editor of the newspaper nodded. Henry broke into a smile. "Of course! You're the Magic Mirror!"

"When that cloud hit the asylum, I found myself bouncing around every reflective surface in town," Sidney sadly stated. "Took a while to get it together enough to contact you."

Mary Margaret was trying to understand this. "Do you know…where they are?"

"Not in the homelands. No, something went wrong with the spell. From what I gather, they landed in…Wonderland."

Henry's eyes went wide. "Wonderland? That's real too?"

"It is," Sidney confirmed. "Getting there is tough though. Unless you happen to know a talking rabbit or someone else who can open up portals."

"We'll find a way," David insisted.

Sidney's face grew grave. "The problem is…there's something else in Wonderland you have to worry about. A power I know all too well. The power of genies."

"How do you know?" Mary Margaret asked.

Sidney smiled softly. "I wasn't always a mirror. I was a genie, freed by your father before Regina manipulated me into this state. I still feel their power and there's at least one in Wonderland, perhaps more." The smile faded. "But also someone else. Someone after that power, an evil sorcerer of great ability. Should he gain the power of a genie, he can grow stronger than even Regina and that's not something we want."

David tapped his fingers on the table, trying to think this over. "We need Gold. He's the only one who can help us."

Mary Margaret looked to the reflection. "Can you contact them?"

"Watching another world is one thing, entering it something else. I can try but can't promise anything."

"Try," David pressed. He looked to his wife, seeing the familiar spark return to her eye. "We're getting our daughter back no matter what it takes."

The reflection sighed deeply. "As someone who knows first-hand how badly wishes can turn out, Prince…Be very careful with talking of how far you can go."

Will Scarlett was used to jails. It came with the territory as a thief, after all. He didn't like them but it was hardly the first time he was stuck in a cell. He paced about in his dark pants and leather jacket, brushing his short hair, trying to keep calm. Panicking was never a good plan in these situations and he needed to maintain his calm if he was going to figure out an escape. Of course, at the moment, such options were beyond him as he'd looked the place over carefully and seen no possibility of how to get out of here.

He leaned on the cell bars, sighing deep. He'd known it was a risk coming back to Wonderland but thought it was worth it. He still owed Alice and dammit, heart or no heart, Will still had a streak of honor left him in to pay that debt off. But being around…her again was harder than he thought. To see the woman he'd once loved turned into a Red Queen who was so damn cold…well, it made Will remember why he'd given away his heart in the first place.

His musings were interrupted by a chipping sound behind him. He turned, frowning as he listened, hearing the taps growing louder. Dust began to shake by the wall, then rocks started to give way. Will backed up as a section of the wall fell inward, spreading out enough to show a large hole. He briefly wondered if Rabbit had decided to help out but it seemed different than his usual holes.

Emerging from the opening was a figure who was definitely not a rabbit. He was a tall and handsome man with rough black hair and a scruffy beard. He stood up on leather boots, brushing at his outfit, a long coat over a black vest and red shirt open at the top to show some of his strong chest and a medallion. He slapped his hands at himself to brush away the dust and allow Will to see that instead of a hand, his left arm ended in a silver hook.

The stranger blinked at Will before looking around. "Oh, hello there. Sorry, must have miscalculated, was trying to reach the outer wall. Better used to navigating the seas than on the ground."

"Who the bloody hell are you?" the Knave demanded.

"Killian Jones," the other man introduced himself. "And you?"

Will paused before shrugging. "Call me Knave. Or Will Scarlett if you want."

"Pleasure to meet you," Jones stated. "Don't suppose you might know of any other prisoners around here?"

"Just me here," Will answered. "But pretty sure the Queen has someone else locked up in another spot."

"Right," Jones mused. "Never trust twins to give proper directions." He moved back to the hole. "Sorry to bother you, mate, I'll be on my way then."

"Wait!" Will called out. "I need out of here!"

"You can take this out," Jones mused, looking back with a smile. "I can sense a fellow pirate when I see one so I'll throw a bone to a kindred spirit. But, got my own problems right now, a partner who's intent on pushing her secret plans, a crocodile to hunt and right now, I need to find one of my crew."

"I can help," Will offered. "I know how the Red Queen thinks, where this friend of yours might be."

Jones thought for a moment before nodding. "Why not? More the merrier can be an aid." He moved to the hole. "Let's get on it then, Will."

"Who is this guy anyhow?" Will asked as they moved to the hole.

"Not a he, mate," Jones answered as they began to crawl out of the cell. "A good sailor and a loyal member of my crew, not to mention a friend." He ducked to star his way out. "Her name is Anna."

As you can see, a few things changed from the show as did like the Wonderland spin-off and a few more twists to come regarding Cora's plans, Hook and Knave and of course just where Anna is. All comments welcomed.