The Tears of A Queen - A Big Hero 6/Frozen Crossover

So I got talked into this Frozen/Big Hero 6 crossover for Tadelsa Week. The premise of the story is that the Nerd Herd takes a school trip to Arendelle in the year 2045, and happen to meet up with our favorite Snow Queen. Immortality is not involved, but magic spells are.

Tadashi and Elsa hit it off, eventually.

And there is angst. And attempted assassination. And cultural confusion. And hijinks ensue. And BOY is it hard to write for an ensemble!

The story takes place while Hiro is banging his head on his desk trying to figure out his awesome sick project for the science exposition, and well before the fire. So...no Hiro, minimal Baymax.

*** Kingdom of Arendelle, 1845 ***

Elsa knew she was going to die. Her death was only moments away. She was exhausted, her magic failing. The enemy pursuing her was implacable. He would never rest until one of them was dead. Her only hope now was to take him with her so that her sister Anna would be safe.

"Be the good Queen I know you can be, Anna. Always remember that I loved you." Elsa's thoughts were for her sister, here at the end of all things.

She was trapped in this cavern. The stink of the sulfur coming from the lava vents was choking her, making it even harder to draw enough breath to concentrate. Her eyes stung and teared, she blinked to clear them, she needed to see him coming in time to …

"Elsa! You can't escape this time!" a gloating, triumphant voice came from an unexpected direction.

She whirled, panicking. How had he managed to get behind her? She raised her hands to fend him off, to kill him with her magic, but her fatigue slowed her enough that it was too la –

** WHITEOUT **

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*** Kingdom of Arendelle, 2045 ***

"Please place your tray tables in their full upright position and insure that all personal belongings are stowed properly for landing. We will be arriving on time at our assigned terminal gate in 20 minutes. Thank you for flying Arendelle Airlines."

Fred ignored the announcement and kept playing "Lemmings: The Gathering" until the flight attendant stopped at his row and instructed him to put it away and fasten his seat belt. He made a show of complying, then reached to pull out the hand-held console again once the man moved on to the next row of passengers. A sharp elbow in his ribs stopped him.

"Hey!" Fred glared at his seatmate Tadashi, who was shaking his head.

"No, not now. We don't need to get thrown off another airplane," Tadashi scowled at him.

"We're still in the air, they can't throw us off," Fred smirked.

"They can blacklist us, just like Corona Airlines did. And guess what? Arendelle is too small to have more than their national airline serving them. Do you REALLY want to sail home? With your tender stomach?"

"We can rent a hovercar," Fred pointed out.

"This country is landlocked, dude. High mountains all around. It's one of the reasons you picked this for our cross-cultural project. It's modern, but still mostly untouched by other cultures. It's as close to an example of a monoculture that we're going to find in a place that has high-speed 'net access and indoor plumbing." Tadashi was watching the VTOL engines on the wing adjust themselves and felt the seat belt cutting into his middle as the plane decelerated for landing. Modern aerospace engineering made the need for long runways obsolete. Otherwise, there wouldn't be air travel to Arendelle. There wasn't enough flat space to put a runway like the ones that were necessary until twenty years ago.

"This whole trip was YOUR idea, I will remind you," Tadashi thumped Fred on the shoulder and finished, "So, dude, try really, really hard not to get us blacklisted, kicked out, locked up or otherwise in trouble with whatever passes for the authorities here, okay?"

Fred crossed his arms and slumped as much as his seat belt allowed him to. What the heck, it was only about 15 minutes until they could get their luggage and check into the hostel and plug back into the 'net. He could hold his breath for that long, so he'd go along with it.

Forty five minutes later, they had recovered their luggage and were standing in front of the hovercar rental booth. While Tadashi wrangled with the counter associate and fumbled with his ID and operators' license, the rest of the gang sat around and looked over the transportation hub's layout. Wasabi wandered over to a big holomap that displayed the city they were in.

"Hey, look, they have a museum in an old castle!" Wasabi loved museums.

"Yippee," GoGo snapped her gum and kept reading her 'pad.

Honey Lemon, and Fred were keeping watch over the huge pile of luggage and playing "Lemmings: The Gathering" on their 'pads. Fred was winning, as usual.

Tadashi finished thumbprinting the screen at the counter, held out his 'pad for the rental clerk to load up the authorization and the keys that would let them take one of the hovercars out of the lot, then returned to the group.

"Okay, let's go. Everyone grab their stuff and let's go get checked into the hostel for tonight. Tomorrow, it's the ski slopes for us!"

"Tell me again why we picked this quaint backwater for our field trip?" Gogo preferred indoor pursuits, unless it involved going very fast on wheels. Since you didn't use wheels to go fast on snow or ice, -AND- she didn't like cold, skiing, snowboarding and skating held little appeal for her. Everyone else enjoyed winter sports, so she had been overruled when they had voted on their destination. She had wanted to go where they were holding the World Cyclo-Cross Championships, which was not in Arendelle.

Honey Lemon had stuffed her 'pad into her purse and grabbed the handles on her luggage. Activated by sensing her DNA, they immediately floated up off the floor onto their hoverpads. "Come on, GoGo, it's a whole new experience! Don't you like getting out of the lab now and again?"

"No. I like the lab. I also like going fast on things with wheels. That's the only time I like being out of the lab. And when I'm in the lab, I'm looking for ways to go faster on things with wheels. High speed, low drag, no friction." Snap! went her gum for emphasis.

"Whatever!" Honey giggled and took a selfie of her and her luggage.

They had reached the car park and found the one assigned to them. Tadashi thumbed his pad, all the doors opened and everyone loaded their stuff in the back. It was an 8-passenger model, so there was room for everyone to sprawl out and all the luggage fit nicely.

Tadashi got in the drivers seat and hit the touchpad to sync his 'pad with the hovercar. "Voice Check?" came out of the speaker on the dash.

"Hamada, Tadashi, authorization Epsilon Lambda Sigma Alpha." For each rental, in addition to the electronic handshaking, a four letter code phrase was provided for the customer to use to let the car recognize their voice. This cut down on car theft enormously.

"Acknowledged. Code accepted, Tadashi Hamada. Welcome to Arendelle. Destination?"

"Oaken's Hostel and Sauna, please"

"Please fasten all seat belts. This vehicle will not engage without all seat belts fastened."

Fred was the last one to fasten his. He hated the feeling of being confined. Except when he was in his mascot costume. That wasn't confining – that was freeing his inner superhero.

The trip to Oaken's was fairly short. The Transport hub was in a small valley just on the other side of some low hills away from the scenic fjord surrounded by the city proper. Their route took them through the city and past the rather picturesque castle on their way to their hostel.

Wasabi pointed it out and said, "I am so going there! Who's with me?"

"I'll go," Tadashi said. "Fred? Honey? Want to come?"

"Nope. We're going to pick up where we left off in Lemmings. You guys have fun."

Checking in and unpacking into their rooms didn't take long. Honey Lemon and Fred sprawled on the couch in Fred's room and linked their 'pads to the wallscreen. Lemmings was a lot more fun on an 80" holoscreen.

GoGo decided to join Wasabi and Tadashi and the three of them soon found themselves swiping their 'pads over the admissions kiosk to pay the 15 kroner fee to tour the castle/museum.

"How much is a kroner in our money?" Wasabi said.

"About a quarter, man." Tadashi stuffed his 'pad in his pocket. Wasabi kept his in his hand. It would project a holomap to guide them through the exhibits.

An hour later, they found themselves in front of an arched doorway with "The Snow Queen of Arendelle" on a sign over it.

"What's this about, Wasab?" GoGo asked.

"Lemme hit the 'play exhibit' button." Wasabi did so, and all three of them listened to the explanation as they walked through a room that had been made to look like a throne room. A throne room decorated with icy accents and snowflakes embedded in the walls and windows. A single snowflake, actually, a design that was repeated everywhere.

They stopped in front of what was clearly an old painting, done in oils. It was a woman, stiff and formal, holding an orb in one hand and a scepter in the other. A small gold tiara with a blue stone gleamed in her platinum blonde hair. Her eyes were a deep blue, and even across the years and through a medium such as an old-fashioned oil painting, the fear and anxiety in those eyes were clear.

Tadashi was smitten. She was beautiful, and young, and looked so vulnerable. She couldn't have been more than in her early twenties when she sat for this painting. He wondered what event the painting commemorated. A glance at the engraved plate on the portrait cleared that up: "Queen Elsa of Arendelle. On the occasion of her coronation. July 14th, 1840"

"Do you have any questions that the exhibit didn't answer? If so, I'd be glad to expand on the recordings." A soft contralto voice came from behind them.

Tadashi turned and found himself smiling. The docent was dressed in the green uniform they had seen on other members of the museum staff. A nametag on her lapel read "Siobhan Västerländsk".

"That's kind of you Ms. Västerländsk," began Tadashi –

"Please, call me Siobhan. Arendelle isn't much for formality, Mr...?" She had green eyes and auburn hair and Tadashi wondered if fraternizing with the guests was allowed. It had been a while since he had dated anyone seriously, and a vacation fling seemed like something he could deal with.

"Hamada, Tadashi Hamada. And this is GoGo Tomago and Wasabi. Just Wasabi." Tadashi made the introductions.

"It's so nice to meet you all. I hope you are enjoying your visit to Arendelle?" Siobhan's friendly smile was open and sincere.

"So far. This is a great museum!" Wasabi loved museums, he was a connoisseur of museums and this one had exceeded his expectations.

Tadashi glanced up at the portrait. "What is the story of this Queen? There didn't seem to be a lot of detail."

Since they were all looking at the portrait, none of them noticed the smile changing to a frown and her eyes tightening into a murderous glance. Siobhan recovered quickly, though, so quickly that she had the sunny smile back when she stepped in front of them to lecture.

"Queen Elsa ruled Arendelle from 1840 until 1845," she began –

"Man, that's short! What happened, she looked so young!" Wasabi exclaimed.

"We don't know exactly what happened, it's still a mystery after all these years – " Siobhan continued after Wasabi's interruption.

The surround-sound annunciator chose that moment to declare, "The museum will close in five minutes. Will all guests please exit at this time. The museum will close in five minutes. Will all guests please exit at this time."

"Aw, man. Talk about bad timing." mourned Wasabi.

Siobhan shook her head, "I'm sorry. The story is a long one, and I think we'll have to wait."

Tadashi decided to take a shot. "Is there any chance you'd be free to join us for dinner, Siobhan? A local guide would make choosing a nice restaurant so much easier." He smiled his most charming smile.

They were walking toward the exit, Tadashi and Siobhan leading, GoGo and Wasabi behind them. "Perhaps, maybe. Although the museum is closing, I have other duties and won't be finished until shortly after 7. Is that too late?"

"Not at all," Tadashi replied. GoGo and Wasabi shared an eyeroll. They could see where this was going.

"Then I'll meet you at your hostel at 7:30. Where are you staying?"

"Oaken's. Do you know how to find it?"

Her laugh was soft and friendly. "It's one of the best-known places in town. I won't have a problem."

They were the last ones to leave the museum, and Siobhan waved goodbye and then locked the gates behind the little group.

"Well, that went well," Tadashi commented.

"Yes, you scored us a local tour guide. Good job, dude." GoGo snapped her gum and rolled her eyes. "We'll try not to interfere in your quest to score a local tour guide for yourself tonight."