Tempest-A Jack Frost and Elsa Fanfiction

Elsa-Chapter 8

Elsa frowned, concentrating hard on the tree again. She hadn't made any more avalanches since the first one, just a minor ice storm and a giant snowball that had rolled down the hill and exploded against a tree. Not what she was going for but the fact that it had almost mowed Jack down was hilarious.

"I don't get it," she said in frustration, causing a little flurry of snow to shoot from her hands. "Why can't I do such a simple task?"

Jack smiled wryly. "You're letting yourself get distracted by your fear, El. Do you want to tell me why you're so afraid of what you can do? You weren't this afraid when you made your little skating rink in the park the other night."

Biting her lip, Elsa shook her head. She didn't want to talk about the only time she had actually hurt someone. It had been the middle of winter when she was still living with her family and a little boy had been picking on her until she cried. He had been so mean and she had felt so helpless and weak as he tripped her and raised his fist again and again...

Suddenly, she had felt a rush of power come over her and had frozen him where he stood before burying him in snow. When he didn't show up to class after recess, the teacher had gotten worried and gone searching for him. Elsa had run outside and unfrozen him as best she could, but by the time the paramedics had gotten there, his legs were already beyond saving. She had felt so horrible that she had vowed never to use her powers to hurt someone else ever again.

"Earth to Elsa," Jack called teasingly. "Come in, Elsa, over."

Sighing, Elsa said, "Just let me try again."

She stepped forward again, making it clear this conversation was closed before raising her hands to try again. She took a deep breath, trying to let go of the past and slowly the snow on the tree began to disappear.

"Have you ever heard of Freud's theory of repression?" Jack asked conversationally. Elsa glared at the tree, doing her best to ignore him. Why couldn't he leave it alone? Elsa concentrated on the tree again, but instead of disappearing, now the snow became heavier and heavier on the branches.

"You know, there are some schools of thought that say that it's better to acknowledge your fears, get them out in the open," Jack continued. "If you keep them bottled up inside, they turn into other things."

"I said leave it alone!" Elsa screamed at last as the branches snapped off of the tree from the weight of the snow she had created. Tears sprang to her eyes as she flung a blast of snow at Jack with all her might that he expertly dodged. She sniffed, trying to hold back her tears. She had just tried to use her powers to attack, all because she was frustrated with Jack.

Sinking down into the snow, she put her head in her hands and began to cry, her tears freezing on contact with her skin. She felt rather than saw Jack sit down next to her in the snow, letting her cry it out for a few minutes before he said, "Seriously, I'm always here if you need to talk. I want to help you, but I can't if you can't help yourself."

Elsa sniffed and looked at him sadly. "I'm afraid of hurting someone. I don't want to hurt anyone again."

"You've hurt someone before?" Jack asked sympathetically. Elsa warred with herself, on the point of saying no, but she finally gave in and nodded once, burying her face in her arms as though it could block out the images of that boy she had frozen. He had been so white, his lips and the skin around his eyes so blue...

"I was nine," she finally relented. "A boy at school was bullying me. I think he might have seen me making frost patterns on the playground because he kept calling me a freak. He tripped me and punched me. He was going to punch me again and I—"

She trailed off, the memory and the guilt too painful. "I didn't want him to hurt me anymore."

"So you fought back," Jack finished, and she could see him watching her out of the corner of her eye. "There isn't anything wrong with defending yourself."

Elsa shook her head. "This wasn't defending myself, this was revenge, pure and simple. I wanted to make him hurt the way he had hurt me."

Jack didn't say anything for a few moments, instead he conjured up the shadow of a rabbit made of frost and used his magic to make it hop around Elsa for a minute or so until she smiled.

"That's nice," she smiled as she reached out to touch it, but the rabbit disintegrated under her touch. Elsa had to fight back tears again as she watched it disappear. Everything she touched got destroyed.

"Elsa," Jack started, trying to comfort her by putting a hand on her shoulder. It was almost instantaneous, Elsa felt herself being pulled and suddenly she was in a sunlit, snow-covered world with a grand palace of ice sitting on the horizon.

She gasped and stumbled backward in fright, breaking the connection with Jack and suddenly finding herself back in Canada.

"What was that?" she demanded, her breathing fast and shallow. "What just happened?"

Jack looked at her in bewilderment, his brow furrowing as he stared. "What are you talking about?"

"When you touched me," she gasped, equally confused. "I wasn't here, I was somewhere else. Somewhere snowy and there was a palace of ice. What does that mean?"

Jack stared at her for a moment and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head before he said, "I don't know."

"You're lying," Elsa spat, standing up and starting to walk away. This was ridiculous. She couldn't work with him, she just couldn't.

Jack jumped up and stopped her with a wall of snow so that she was forced to turn and look at him. "No, I meant that what you're describing—it's not possible for you to have been there."