The Tears of A Queen – Epilogue
A Big Hero 6/Frozen Crossover
*** SanFranSokyo, 2045 ***
Hiro stood with the rest of the group, numb with misery as he looked at the makeshift memorial. The flickering candles threw ever-changing shadows across their somber faces, creating sparkles of light from the tears rolling down many cheeks.
"Hiro?"
He sighed, then turned to look at the tall blond woman who had addressed him. Her deep blue eyes were warm with sympathy. He leaned into her hug and whispered, "Thank you."
Elsa held him close with one arm. She was holding Tadashi's hand with the other. "You're welcome, Hiro."
She looked at his older brother and saw the unshed tears in Tadashi's brown eyes as he looked over the flowers and candles of the memorial to Professor Callaghan on the concrete steps. She gave his hand a little squeeze that drew his eyes back to hers.
Hiro turned to face the picture of the Professor but kept one arm around Elsa's waist. "I'm glad you were able to pull Tadashi out of that fire, just wish you guys could have found the Professor." He looked back at them and grimaced.
"Me, too, bro, me too," agreed Tadashi. One eyebrow had been scorched off and there were scrapes and faint burns on one cheek. He had his left arm in a sling. He broke it when he and Elsa had been blown back by the explosion and landed on the concrete steps of the exposition building. It could have been worse – he could have been alone in that fire trying to find Professor Callaghan. But Elsa had charged in when he had, and used her magic power to create a shield wall of swirling ice and snow to protect the two of them from the raging fire. He closed his eyes and tried not to remember how scared he had been.
"Tadashi! NO!"
It had started so well; Hiro had wowed the crowd and Professor Callaghan. When Callaghan handed Hiro the envelope with his admission slip into the SFIT program, Tadashi thought his buttons would pop from his pride in his little brother. Everyone had been chattering happily as they left to go celebrate at The Lucky Cat, even Elsa, her usual reserve forgotten.
Tadashi had told Aunt Cass that they would join them in a few minutes; he wanted a quiet moment to tell Hiro how proud he was. The two of them walked off to an overlook away from the crowd. Elsa stayed behind at the steps to the exhibition hall.
The raucous wail of a fire alarm broke the quiet of the night and Tadashi and Hiro ran back to find the building was engulfed in a raging fire. Elsa was comforting a woman who had staggered out of the building and looked up at Tadashi when he and Hiro skidded to a halt, looking around in horror.
Elsa reached out to Tadashi and said, "She said Professor Callaghan's still in there!" The woman nodded.
Tadashi looked around wildly, then started to run up the steps. Hiro grabbed his arm and yelled, "Tadashi, NO!"
He looked at his little brother in confusion, then said, "Callaghan's in there, someone has to help!" and pulled away to run into the burning building. Hiro looked on in horror, then gasped as Elsa ran up the steps after Tadashi.
The interior was a swirling inferno of flames and choking smoke. Standing just inside the doors, Tadashi felt the heat beating on his face as it threatened to consume him, ignoring it as he tried to see through the flames for any sign of the professor. Which way should he go? He thought he had lost it when heat suddenly turned to freezing cold and a white whirlwind appeared around him.
"Tadashi!" It was Elsa! She had followed him into this hellish nightmare, and she was using her magic to create a protective cocoon of snow and ice around them. He could hardly hear her over the roar of the fire and the hissing of her ice and snow vaporizing in the heat.
"We have to find him!" Tadashi screamed.
"I know!" she shouted back. "I can keep us safe for a little while, but - "
The explosion took them both by surprise and blew them back through the doors out onto the concrete steps. Elsa had been slightly in front of Tadashi, and her wall of magical snow helped to soften the force of the blast enough to save their lives. They had both landed awkwardly, breath knocked out of them.
Dazed, they looked back at the exhibition hall, now completely consumed in a roaring conflagration. No one could possibly be left alive in that. Tadashi felt his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath, then screamed when Hiro grabbed his arm to try to pull him to safety. He must have broken it when he landed. Hiro shifted his grip to put his arms around Tadashi's waist, Elsa got his right arm over her shoulder and the three of them stumbled down the concrete steps, tumbled the last few feet to lay on the ground as firefighters arrived to swarm the building and try to control the blaze.
EMT's were not far behind, and they helped get Elsa, Tadashi and Hiro far enough away from the building to check them for injuries and treat them.
"I thought I lost you, bro!" Hiro wouldn't let his brother go. "What were you thinking?"
Tadashi hugged him with his good arm and looked at Elsa. Her hair was disheveled and she had a scrape on her cheek, but she looked okay other than that. She offered him a shaky smile as one of the EMT's gently pulled her aside for an examination.
"I would have died if she hadn't come after me. We would have died without her magic." Tadashi shuddered at the thought of what might have been.
Aunt Cass' lips were moving in a silent prayer. She finished and made a reverent gesture over the memorial, then sighed and turned to the little group huddled together on the steps. Everyone was here to pay their respects to the Professor, lost in the explosion and fire that destroyed the Student Showcase.
"How about we all go back to the Lucky Cat and get something to eat. I know you kids have been grieving and not taking care of yourself, but we can't have you fainting at the service for the Professor tomorrow, can we?" she asked with a mock scowl.
She hooked one of Honey Lemon's arms, then took Wasabi's hand. "Come on, you guys. You can all tell stories about him over wings and donuts. Let me and Elsa get to know him the way you all did." She got the little group moving. Hiro let go of Elsa and followed.
Tadashi and Elsa stood for a moment more looking down at the candles and the picture.
"Thank you for saving my life, Elsa. I can't believe you ran into that fire after me." Tadashi murmured. He tightened his hold on Elsa and she laid her head on his shoulder.
"En handling av ekte kjærlighet, kjæreste." she replied softly.
"What does that mean? You know I don't understand Norwegian yet," Tadashi lamented.
Elsa giggled and said, "You need an incentive to learn. I'm not satisfied with your progress."
"It's bad enough that my girlfriend has superpowers, now she's nagging me about my studies," Tadashi grumbled. It was a good-natured grumble, though.
They continued to follow Aunt Cass and the rest for a bit before Elsa had the courage to ask, "Is that what I am?"
"Huh?"
"Am I your … girlfriend?"
Tadashi stopped abruptly as he realized what he had said. He looked down to see her waiting for his answer. "Uh, Elsa, I … would it be too bold of me to admit that I can hope?" He was totally embarrassed and figured she'd squash his presumptuous butt like the bug that it –
Elsa stood on tiptoes and kissed him gently. "Would it be too bold of me to admit that I can also hope?" Her shy smile was enough to break his heart.
He was struck speechless. He had not seen that coming. "Wow. I … I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything. We have begun what may be a long journey. Let's enjoy it and see where it takes us. I still have much to learn about this world, and you … you have much to learn about me." She smiled again and began to walk to catch up to Aunt Cass and the others, tugging on his arm to hurry him along.
Elsa wasn't sure if this was true love yet. But it was a start, and she was eager to see where it led.
~fin~
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Author's Notes:
Well, that was … interesting.
Man, writing for that large a cast is HARD. I'm really sorry if I short-changed your favorite character – I frankly couldn't find enough for all of them to do, what with Elsa and Tadashi sucking all the air out of the room. And I suck at writing romance anyway, so … baby steps.
I tried really really hard to remain as true to canon for both movies as possible. I confess that I am far more comfortable in Arendelle than in San Fransokyo, having only seen BH6 three times. Although the real-life San Francisco is one of my favorite cities, one where I've spent years working on assignments in my previous life. It's always a tossup between the view from Coit Tower and Twin Peaks for me.
At the end of this story, we are at the point in the BH6 movie after the fire at the Student Showcase, except Hiro isn't the one that falls into grief-stricken revenge mode. Thanks to Elsa, Tadashi escapes the fire. Who knows? Maybe Tadashi is angry enough to seek revenge and Elsa has to pull him back. Maybe Tadashi is just driven to find whoever caused the professor's death without succumbing to his dark side.
However, everything else could happen pretty much as it did in the movie as Hiro notices his single micobot twitching, the Nerd Herd (with Elsa in tow) follows the clues, and except for the angsty-losing-a-sibling thing, the Big Hero 6 prevails! Except they now have a REAL superhero as part of the gang: Elsa, the Snow Queen.
I won't be writing that story. This was a one-shot attempt at a crossover. Thanks for enjoying it. Be sure to tip your author with reviews. We'll be here all week.
And, oh yeah, read and review my other stuff. Thank you!