An Act of True Love

Written for "Frozen Fandom Month, What IF?" week.

This story begins during the reprise of "For the First Time in Forever." Anna is confronting Elsa, trying to get her to return to Arendelle, but only succeeding in pushing her into a panic attack. In this alternative universe, however, when Elsa explodes with "I CAN'T!", she freezes her own heart, not Anna's, and immediately turns into an icy statue. We pick up our story when Kristoff runs into the room to find Anna horrified at what has happened.

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"I CAN'T!" Elsa screamed and a blast of ice magic radiated out from her heart to the entire room.

Anna looked up in horror from where she had fallen to the floor when she slipped on the icy surface. The blast went over her head, seemed to bounce off the walls and back onto her sister. Elsa shuddered, then took deep, panting breaths.

Kristoff ran into the room and slid to Anna's side, saying, "Are you alright?" He helped her to her feet and they both turned to look at Elsa, who had turned at the sound of Kristoff and Olaf coming into the room.

"Who's this? Wait, it doesn't matter. You have to go," Elsa demanded.

Determined to help her sister, Anna stubbornly replied, "No, I know we can figure this out together – "

But Elsa was having none of it. "How? What power do you have to stop this winter? To stop me?" Her voice was pleading, desperate.

Before Anna could respond, something terrible happened. A crackling sound and Elsa turned to ice, the blue spreading from her heart. In an eyeblink, Anna and Kristoff were staring at an icy statue.

"No, Elsa!" Anna screamed and ran to throw her arms around Elsa while Kristoff and Olaf watched sadly.

Kristoff didn't know what to do. His acquaintance with Anna had been short, but he felt protective of her. Bold, exuberant and more than a little foolhardy, she had let nothing stand between her and finding her sister, even braving the howling storm in a ball gown. And although Elsa had plunged Arendelle into an untimely winter, the story Anna had told Kristoff tugged at his heart. For some reason unknown to Anna, the two women had been separated for thirteen years. Now it appeared that Elsa's reason had to be Elsa's magic powers to control ice and snow, a power that was revealed when Anna pushed her too hard at the coronation ball.

Watching the two, a memory struggled to the top of Kristoff's mind, a memory of a King and Queen and two little girls coming to the trolls. One of the little girls had ice powers and had apparently injured her little sister. With sudden clarity, Kristoff realized that he had witnessed Elsa and Anna coming to Grandpabbie. He gulped, wondering how to share this with Anna.

He walked up to Anna and gently touched her shoulder. "Anna, Anna, we need to do something."

Anna stood up, reluctantly releasing the hug on her sister's still form. "What? What do we need to do?" Her tone was bitter, accusatory. She was blaming herself for pushing Elsa too far, talking instead of listening, thinking only of herself, not what her sister was suffering. She glared at Kristoff, daring him to say something.

"We need to get her to the trolls," he said.

Anna reeled. What? Trolls? They were only a myth, no, a fairy tale to frighten small children. "Trolls? What are you talking about?"

"Trolls exist, and they can help us, but you have to trust me. Please?" Kristoff begged.

Wiping her cheeks with the back of her hands, Anna sniffled and said, "Alright. What are you going to do?"

"It's not safe to leave her here alone. Someone might come. I'm sure there are search parties out looking for both of you. If she's left here unprotected, they might decide that the only way to end the winter is to – "

"End her. You're right. We need to get her somewhere safe. How?" Anna asked him, stroking Elsa's cheek.

"I can carry her down to someplace away from here, someplace where I know there's a small cave. No one will find it, if you don't know it's there you'd never stumble on it. Then you and I can go to the trolls and get their help."

An hour later, after an arduous journey, they had found a small cul-de-sac, and Kristoff put Elsa down carefully and took a few deep breaths to get his wind back. He rolled aside a boulder to expose the little cave and they managed to get Elsa inside and situated before the last of the light died as the sun disappeared below the horizon.

"Now what?" Anna asked.

"Now I push the boulder back, and we go see Grandpabbie," Kristoff replied. Once the boulder was back in place, Kristoff looked at Anna and said, "Do you have enough energy to walk for another hour? It's that far to the trolls."

"Yeah, I can do that much, but I'm not sure how much more I can do." Anna yawned.

"Don't worry, we can spend the night with the trolls. It will be safe there, and I have a little cave with a bed you can use." Kristoff assured her.

"Wait, what? Why do you have a bed there?" Anna was startled.

Kristoff rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, well, it's like this. I kinda got adopted by the trolls when I was little, maybe eight years old? I was an orphan, and I happened to stumble into their valley, and … well, it's a long story and you need to hear the rest of it. But can it wait until we get there? I promise I'll tell you everything."

Anna's mind was in a whirlwind of conflicting thoughts. She was still in shock over the events of the last couple of days, she was consumed with worry about Elsa, and now Kristoff was telling her that the trolls were his adopted family. He had been a good companion to her so far, she had to admit she probably would have frozen to death or gotten eaten by wolves if she hadn't run into him at Oaken's. She trusted him, and so far that had worked out.

Taking her silence for consent, he asked, "Do you want to ride Sven? He can carry you if you want."

"Yeah, Anna, I can walk!" Olaf had been riding Sven off and on as they had come down the mountain. "Here, take my place." The little snowlem hopped down from Sven's back, and Sven snorted what could be assent.

"No, I'll walk. I'm afraid I'll fall asleep and then fall off. Let's go, before I do fall asleep on my feet." Anna looked at Kristoff and he led the way down the trail toward the Valley of Living Rock.

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Prince Hans and his search party came around the rocky outcropping to the sight of Elsa's magnificent Ice Palace. Reining in his horse, Hans turned to the men with him and said, "We are here to find Princess Anna. Be on guard, but no harm is to come to the Queen. Do you understand?"

Most of the men nodded, and they all dismounted. One of the men took the reins of all the horses, then Hans led the rest up the staircase into the entrance hall. They looked around in awe at the beauty of the structure. But there was no sign of anyone.

Hans barked, "You men spread out and search this place. I'll stay here in case you flush out the Queen and she tries to escape." The men moved to obey.

A short time later, they all returned and reported that they had found no one. Hans fumed. Where was Anna? Where was Elsa? Elsa must have built this place, although he couldn't imagine how. But they had seen no sign of Anna on their travels here. Had she fallen into a crevasse on her forlorn quest to find her sister? Become prey for the wolves? No matter. It was dark now, they needed to get back to Arendelle. He'd figure something out. If Anna returned, it was good, he was her loving fiance. If she didn't … he was the ruler of the kingdom. Either way, Hans thought, he won.

"Mount up. We'll return to Arendelle and send out more search parties in the morning," he ordered.

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By the time they got to the Valley of Living Rock, Anna was almost asleep on her feet. She stumbled along next to Kristoff, leaning into him occasionally, hanging on to Sven's harness other times. They finally arrived, and she stood blinking, wondering why Kristoff had brought her here. It was a small glen in the rocks, surrounded by steam vents that apparently kept the area warm, even as winter covered the rest of the landscape. She leaned on Olaf as Kristoff strode to the center of the area and said, "Hey, guys, I'm here and I need Grandpabbie."

"He's crazy," whispered Olaf out of the side of his mouth. Anna had to agree. She didn't see anything but a number of small boulders, moss covered and still.

That changed as the boulders started to rumble and roll toward Kristoff, causing Anna to cry out, "Kristoff!" as she worried he would be crushed. But the boulders suddenly unfolded into small, stubby people, and one of them yelled, "Kristoff's home!"

The crowd of trolls were clamoring for Kristoff's attention while Anna and Olaf watched in amazement. One of the trolls noticed them standing there and yelled, "He's brought a GIRL!" A group rolled over to Anna, picked her up and carried her to where Kristoff was standing and pushed her into his arms.

Embarrassed, Kristoff flushed and said, "I'm sorry. They get excited. I've learned to just roll with it."

Anna had to smile at the smaller trolls hopping up and down trying to talk to Kristoff. They were certainly glad to see him, maybe they were his family.

The crowd parted as another troll rolled up and unfolded in front of them. He was clearly older, wearing an elaborate cape of moss.

"Kristoff! Why have you come and brought this girl here?"

"Grandpabbie, this is Princess Anna of Arendelle. You should remember her. Her father brought her to you thirteen years ago, the night I was adopted."

Anna looked at Kristoff, her jaw hanging open as she absorbed this statement. She had been here before? Why didn't she remember that? Meeting trolls would certainly be something a five-year-old would find memorable.

Pabbie didn't say anything for a moment, then motioned to them, "Come sit over here, Kristoff. It is clear that Princess Anna is ready to fall over from exhaustion."

No sooner had he said that then Anna swayed and leaned on Kristoff's arm to stay upright. "I am, please … "

Leading her over to a low shelf of stone, Kristoff helped Anna sit, then sat next to her, but left a bit of distance between them. He was still uncomfortable touching her or being too close. She was a Princess, and he was just an ice harvester. Worse, if what she had told him was true, she was engaged to a Prince. Propriety demanded distance.

Pabbie stood in front of them, and the rest of the trolls formed a small crowd around them.

"Your Highness," Pabbie began, "I am sure that you have many questions. I will answer them all, but why has Kristoff brought you here once again?"

Anna tried to gather her thoughts into something coherent. "My … my sister, Elsa, she's … frozen herself. And the kingdom. And it's all my fault." She began to cry, leaning on Kristoff's shoulder.

Seeing that she was too overcome to speak, Pabbie said to Kristoff, "Can you help explain?"

Kristoff was concentrating on trying to comfort Anna without touching her, but nodded at Pabbie and began to relate the entire story. The part about the coronation disaster that Anna had told him about, the meeting at Oaken's, the trip to the Ice Palace and the confrontation with Elsa.

" – and then the Queen turned to ice right before our eyes. We took her to a small cave where she would be safe, then came here to get your counsel, Grandpabbie. What can we do?"

Anna had managed to compose herself and sit up, hanging on Pabbie's response. He had to be able to help her sister, he had to. Trolls were magical, everyone knew that. Well, those that actually believed they existed.

Pabbie seemed to be mulling the story over for several minutes before he spoke up. Rather than answering Kristoff's question, he addressed Anna. "Your Highness, this is all my fault."

"Huh? How can it be your fault, uh, Grandpabbie?" Anna asked.

The eldest troll hung his head in shame. "Because, when your father brought you here, the advice I had given him and your mother and Elsa was unclear. Your father mistaking my words as instructions to hide Elsa away, even from you, her beloved sister, and then all the lonely years followed. Had I been more explicit, your father would have understood that I meant that ELSA'S fear would be her enemy."

Anna was stunned. "What … what happened that they brought us here? I don't remember any of this!"

Pabbie took her hand in his own, then explained what had happened, how Elsa had accidentally hurt Anna, how he had changed Anna's memories to wipe out any recollection of magic.

"So, you see, I had thought that Elsa would learn control, and you would be brought back into regular contact with her. Instead, the two of you have suffered unimaginable loneliness because of my failures."

There were long moments of silence as Anna absorbed this information and realized how it completely turned her life of the last thirteen years upside down. She shrank into herself as she finally, truly understood just what Elsa was hiding, and it was not the existence of her magic, but the hurt that she had done with her magic.

"Oh, Elsa," Anna whispered.

Kristoff had listened intently to the story Pabbie had to tell. He had seen some of it, but it had been too complex for his eight-year old self to fully understand. Now, as an adult, his heart broke for the two sisters. He could tell Anna was unable to compose any coherent questions, so Kristoff asked the most obvious one.

"Grandpabbie, how can we release Elsa from her own magic?"

Anna stirred and looked at the old troll, holding her breath to see what he would say. She would do anything to save Elsa, anything at all.

"Kristoff, Princess Anna, only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart," Pabbie said. His eyes were sad.

"What exactly does that mean, Pabbie? If lack of clarity started this mess, let's not have some vague proscription here at the end of it," Anna asked. "Would a true love's kiss thaw Elsa's heart? But there is no man who she loves or who loves her."

"No, nothing so simple as a kiss. In this case, I would think it would be an act by Elsa herself, sacrificing herself for someone she loves," responded Pabbie.

"That makes no sense, Pabbie," interjected Anna. "Elsa is frozen solid, she can't do anything anymore while she's frozen!"

"I know, my child, but that is the way I interpret the situation. I am sorry," Pabbie replied.

"She sacrificed herself for thirteen years! Doesn't that count?" Anna's question was angry; she was angry – at Pabbie, at her parents, at Elsa herself for not telling Anna the truth once their parents were gone. "She was trying to protect us, me and the kingdom, because she had this awful idea that she was dangerous!"

"I don't know, apparently not, or she would have thawed already." Pabbie was almost as distraught as Anna.

Kristoff asked, "So, what should we do, Pabbie?"

"I don't know, Kristoff. Perhaps Anna should return to Arendelle to reassure the kingdom, while I do further research. Until we come to some other conclusion, I think it best to leave Elsa where she is hidden, to protect her from anyone who might do her harm."

Kristoff looked at Anna, who was clearly drained of all the bright energy she had radiated through the last day and a half.

"Okay, but we need to sleep here tonight, then go down to Arendelle in the morning. Come on, Anna, let's get you to bed." Kristoff stood and helped Anna to her feet, then led her off to his small cave. She would be comfortable there while she slept. In the morning, after a good breakfast, they would return to Arendelle.

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To be continued ….