Love Can Thaw

Chapter 7: "That's a New One"

"Maleficent ain't got nothing on this thing," Crystal says as she raises her hands to fight.

"Can you please stop making jokes?!" Emma snaps.

"I'm sorry, it's what I do when I'm scared or bored or annoyed."

The dragon begins circling near the clock tower, obviously looking for a way to attack.

"Well, be prepared to be terrified," Regina says.

"I'd say it was a beautiful creation if it was not so destructive," Elsa says.

Robin and Snow let arrows fly at the thing without a second thought. The tiny aerial weapons do nothing but bounce off the creature's glistening skin. Flecks of ice crystals form the scales of the snow reptile, making it shine in the noonday sun. The creature turns its head towards the group of heroes on the ground.

"Yep, that will get its attention," Crystal groans. "Just watch out for its..."

The beast opens its mouth and releases more ice energy towards the group. No one has time to react, they all brace themselves for the beast's attack. They wait for the deadly cold to consume their bodies, but instead, they don't feel anything. When they look up, she sees that Elsa has her hands raised. She deflected the monster's power, enough to save them from perishing in the cold, creating a sort of ice dome around them. It also provides temporary protection, despite the freezing temperature surrounding them.

"Thank you, Queen Elsa," Robin says.

"It is my pleasure Mr. Hood, but unfortunately I cannot hold this forever. My aunt's magic is much stronger than my own, there is no way I will be able to fight this beast alone."

"You won't have to," Emma says confidently. "We'll fight this thing together."

"Are you sure Emma?" Snow asks, with much concern for her daughter's powers.

"Yes,"

"Sorry to break up this assertive moment, but we need a plan," Regina says.

"We need to fight fire with fire," Crystal says. "The thing may be strong, but heat is still its weakness. It's how I was able to escape earlier."

The three who have fire magic let their hands glow.

Crystal swallows, remembering something important, "I also forgot to mention the..."

The sound of ice cracking interrupts her. Something long and heavy is bearing down on the ice dome. Elsa tries to fight it, but the pressure is too great. With little time to react, Crystal lets out a seismic wave, blasting the dome into a million pieces and pushing everyone out of harm's way. It also causes the dragon's tail to shatter, raining sharp pieces of ice down on everyone. Regina, Snow, Robin, and Elsa go one way, Emma, Crystal, Killian, and David in the other. They land against the pavement very hard and are then showered with pieces of ice that could be as sharp as a knife. Several people receive cuts from the shrapnel.

"Tail," she groans, waving her hand to heal David, who received an ice shard to the leg and helps him recover from the blast. Everyone's ears are pounding and their vision blurs. Emma has a cut on the back of the head and bruised elbows, which took the brunt of the fall. Killian has several cuts on his face, which bleed a little bit and his hook is askew from the impact with the ground.

"Bloody hell Crystal," the pirate groans, trying to stand up. "I thought we talked about those magic blasts." He reaches over to help Emma to her feet. "Are you alright, Love?"

"I just saved our lives. That thing has a tail with ice shards sharper than a sword. There's no way Elsa could hold it off for very long."

Emma tries to stand up and removes the tiny shard from her head. She wasn't familiar with healing, just yet, but she manages to make her hand glow and the gash to close up. She then turns to Killian and waves her hand over him, his wounds become healed, leaving no mark.

"Where's Snow?" the prince asks as Crystal heals her knees and removes the ice stuck in her arm.

On the other side of the pavement, Snow kneels over Elsa, who has a gash on her forehead and is lying unconscious most likely stunned by the attack. The former princess is ignoring her own injuries to help her friend, paying no attention to the ice shard lodged in her leg and the one piece that has cut her hand. Regina nearly had her eye taken out and had to heal several cuts she had on her back. Robin, with his arrows laying all over the street, must remove a piece of sharp ice from his foot.

"Regina..." She says in great concern.

But before the former Evil Queen can even think about healing them, the dragon lets out another mighty roar. Everyone looks up to see that the beast was merely stunned and they watch in horror as the once destroyed tail slowly reforms to its original shape.

"Oh, that's new!" Crystal shrieks in fear.

The beast turns towards the weakest group, the one with the unconscious Queen and those with very little magic. It glares at them with deep yellow eyes. Regina lets out a blast of dark magic, trying to protect the others. It creates a hole in the dragon's neck, it takes a large step back, causing the ground to shake, but then it shakes its head, the wound on its neck disappears again. This only causes the ice dragon to become angrier. It roars louder than before and takes a massive step towards the Evil Queen, the pavement crumbling under its weight and causing the windows of the nearby shops to rattle violently. She keeps the blasts coming, trying to keep it away from the wounded group and prevent it from opening its mouth.

Seeing the distress, David grabs his sword up and begins to charge at the thing without thinking. Crystal stops him by creating a line of magic, causing him to bounce back onto the ground.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" the prince shouts.

"That thing will kill you if you confront it like that."

"I'm not letting my wife die!"

"No one's going to die, but you have to think before you act," the girl insists.

A voice calls out from the other side. "ANY PLAN OF ANY KIND IS WELCOME!" Regina screams.

"Emma, we need to create fire, drive the thing away," Crystal says, her heart pounding.

"Okay," the Saviour says.

Both sorceresses concentrate and a wall of flames appear a foot in front of Regina. The beast stumbles back at the appearance of heat, it's tail smashing a section of the pharmacy. Henry, Ashley, Archie with Pongo, Sneezy and a few others who had taken refuge in the building scream out in fear. Fortunately, the section of the building was free of people and it only knocked over the shelves and broke the window of the shop. Sneezy hurries everyone into the back room, trying to keep them safe and huddled together. The creature begins hobbling around, swinging its tail in all directions, trying to avoid the flames.

"Henry!" Emma shrieks and she tries to go towards him. Crystal catches her shoulder.

"He's fine, I can see his energy, I need you here to keep this going."

Tears fill the blonde's eyes, she's afraid for her son, but also for her mother and friends. They need to get rid of this thing. Regina is also trying to reach Henry but she is stopped when the dragon's tail lands inches from her. She turns and feeds the fire with her own magic so they can kill this thing sooner.

The wall of flames becomes higher and the hot blaze begins to affect the dragon more, water begins to pool underneath it and its glistening scales lose their shine. Several of its icicles on its back begin to melt too and the yellow in the beast's eyes begins to fade. It lets out louder roars, those of fear and anger. In a last desperate attempt to escape, it flies upwards, out of reach of the heat.

Once it has cleared the heat, the melted parts reform with ease and the now furious creature, turn back for its victims. It then releases icicles from its back while in mid-air, causing the creators of the fire to dive to the side to protect the others and avoid being impaled.

"That is also a new one," Crystal hisses through her teeth.

"We need to kill this thing before it destroys Storybrooke!" Emma pants. "But how?"

A/N: Things are heating up, pun intended.