Why, hello! Don't mind me casually uploading a sequel to a story I finished writing 2 years ago. It's been in the planning stage for a while and stagnated there while I adamantly refused to publish it as long as Altered Memories remained incomplete. But AM is complete now and I am going to be freely updating this for the next however long it takes to write.

So, just a little housekeeping: this is the perhaps-maybe-very-long-awaited sequel to Princess Story, a Kairi/Zexion fic that's kinda canon divergent and this fic will only diverge even more. I know Princess Story is very long but it is unfortunately required reading for this fic. There are also some side-stories scattered over my profile that aren't required reading but I may refer to them in future chapters. They're mostly just cute and have no real plot relevance. Thirdly, Princess Story and its sequel are part of an extended canon diverged universe of Kingdom Hearts that I've made up that includes other stories in my works list, namely Tidus' Adventures in Traverse Town (indefinite hiatus, stagnated) and Altered Memories (complete!). As it is currently on hiatus, TATT can't be expected to have a huge impact on this story, but if you've read AM you'll definitely see its influence creeping in as early as chapter 4.

Lastly, update schedules for me don't really exist. I have tried them and I am very, very, VERY bad at maintaining them, probably because my fandom interests are just all over the place. For this story, I will attempt to maintain a regular fortnightly update but keep terribly in mind that this schedule may be a little volatile.

That all being said, I think it's time to finally begin this. The first 3 chapters are mostly going to be exposition rather than plot. Plot doesn't really start until chapter 4. So, for the next 2 weeks, enjoy this first chapter of exposition! :D

Let Go

A stark, white ruin was all that was left of a once grand castle on the slope of a frigid, black mountain. The throne room was a particular wreck, looking as though a grand battle had taken place inside it. A gargantuan armoured guardian lay motionless across the room and the floor was scattered with chunks of ice and broken spikes, many of which had melted partially in these warmer months. With the lady of the castle gone, the sun shone more freely on these frozen mountain ranges. The roof of the room had almost completely caved in, allowing the snow to blow in and settle thickly on everything. At the end of the room, perched on a high podium, was a mirror's frame. The inner edge was sharp and jagged and the shattered pieces lay where they fell, covered in snow.

Despite this destruction there were places that remained untouched. One such place was a secret crypt, deep beneath the castle. The crypt was old, older than most parts of the castle it belonged to. It was dark and dry and colder than the below freezing temperatures on the surface. The room was carved from the mountain stone and smoothed to a polished finish. The only light came from within the bust of an extravagant ice statue, sitting on a throne in a niche framed by columns and arches and carvings of snowdrops, snowflakes and feathers. The woman the statue portrayed looked to be some regal figure, dressed finely in the robes of a sorceress and the jewels of a queen. The walls and ceiling were cracked and from those cracks water was dripping, as it had been for several months.

Finally the last drop fell, completing the puddle that had formed in the curved saucer-like floor. The water rippled. It was calm at first, like a petal had fallen on its surface. Then it got more violent. The water rose in peaks and splashes and whispered a promise to the crypt:

"I will destroy her! I will destroy her light! I will take away everything that she lays claim to, all that she knows, and everyone she loves! I will take it all away from her just as she took it all away from me! Just as it was all taken away from my mother…"

The light of the statue's pendant grew, illuminating her smiling face.

Deep in the hearts of powerful sorceresses two women were placed upon a single podium atop an endless tower in a dark abyss. Giselle looked down at the stained glass floor below her, lit by a brilliant backlight of unknown origin or nature. She moved her legs aside, recognising her visage in the glass. At the edge of podium was a large, impressive throne of ice and seated on it was the woman of the ice statue. In the light her clothes were blue and white, her long cape almost indistinguishable from the icy chair that dwarfed her. Despite her height Giselle was merely a pale, skinny waif in comparison. The regal woman's nail polish glittered like diamonds, as did all of her make-up. Her white hair was pinned back neat and stately. Giselle rose to her feet, face petrified in awe.

"Mother…?"

The woman smirked. "Giselle, darling, what hath kept thee?"

"How is it that I'm able to see you again? Didn't you die?" the snow queen asked (although in light of the situation, perhaps she should be called the snow princess). She looked around. "Where are we?"

"We art whence we were when we perished. Thou art such a precious child of mine, thou hast kept me for a millennium, unfathomable how such youth and naivety belied such power."

"What do you mean?" the daughter said, taking a few steps forwards. "If you're truly alive then this is wonderful, isn't it? We can get out of here and finally stomp those ugly vermin."

"Only one may depart this place," the queen replied, standing up and folding her hands. "Doth thou recall witnessing my death? The mice declared victory and retreated with their army but overlooked one dram girl. I suppose thou art considered womanly but a fledgling I still deem thee. Without me, this feeble form thou art always constricted within. Yet when thou remoulded my remains back into glorious form my heart was frozen on the cusp of departure."

"I saved you?" Giselle whispered, a smile spreading on her face.

"It is true." Her mother nodded slowly. "Thou art blessed with talent but not understanding of the charm thou art capable of wielding. Alas, my heart drifts in purgatory and my soul hath already fractured; there is not enough left of me to survive. But with our energies and remains combined I can be reborn into the world anew. Sacrifice thyself, darling, so that I may rise and conquer the world."

Giselle's smile fell as her mother began to step away from her throne, ominously making her way towards her daughter. She stretched out her arms welcomingly but her face was cold with cruel satisfaction. Giselle began to step back.

"Mother, I can find a way for us both to leave here," she pleaded. "We can find a way-"

"Thou disobey me?!" her mother shrieked. With a furious sweep of her arm and a stamp of her jewelled heel the ice throne disintegrated into snowflakes that whirled around the stage in a blizzard. The wind was chilly even to a being that was frozen down to the core, like Giselle. "I created thee!"

"To love me," Giselle said, staring at her mother imploringly. "You made me your daughter because you yourself could have none."

"I can fashion another child of magic when I am free. Do duty to thy parent and release thy heart to mine so that I may reawaken."

Giselle turned away and looked down. Her hands – perhaps the coldest in all of the worlds – that had never known coldness were shivering. With a burst of pain, something in her chest burned. It billowed up to her head like smoke and flowed down her arms to the tips of her fingers. Her heart trembled, sensitive to the heat and trying to claw it back.

"Is this all I am to you?" she asked, surprising even herself with her small, weak voice. She didn't feel weak and with each word her voice grew stronger to reflect her inner grit. "Is this all I have ever been to you? Is this all I have ever been to anyone?! To you I am a doll. To Zexion I am a pawn. To the Princess I am just an obstacle in the way of her path."

"They shall no longer matter."

"Oh, but they do," Giselle growled, twisting and scrunching her face in rage. "They will pay for using me! You will pay!"

"Insolent child!" her mother screamed.

She thrust out her hand and the snow twisted violently, suddenly convening on Giselle. The snow princess lifted her arms. The snow swirled around her like a tornado. She grunted with the effort of holding it at bay, feeling the push of her mother's magic acting upon it. She thrust with all of her magic and the snow blew away. The queen flinched, astonished by the strength of her daughter. This time with both hands she took control of the snow again and spun it into spears and needles of ice. She hurled them down at the thin woman. Giselle channelled her heat, braving the searing in her chest. She ripped the ice out of her mother's control and with her practiced dance steps she willed it to follow her as she turned tightly and then whipped back to the queen, spearing her.

Ice struck the queen in every part of her body. It knocked her back but kept her propped up and immobile. Giselle stepped towards her, stony-faced. Her mother flexed her hands, willing the magic to pump through her body again. With a swirl of Giselle's left foot, ice that had missed the mark remoulded as fluidly as wax and shot up to spear her right hand. The same happened to her left at the turn of Giselle's right foot. She continued her advance as her mother huffed, drawing pained breaths through her teeth. Even then she could not help how her head tilted instinctively and her eyeballs wavered in fear.

"I won't be led by the collar any longer," Giselle said, voice cool and even. She looked up. Above them two hearts circled each other. One of them sparked and forks of electricity flicked out to lick and caress the other, paralysing it and drawing it in. "Your heart will be the energy source to feed my transformation. The broken pieces of your soul will melt to fill the cracks of mine. Your corpse and mine will be merged and remodelled into a new body. It will be me."

Her mother screamed as her heart was engulfed by Giselle's. The new heart burned brighter and sparked ferociously. The snow queen's body burned away like paper as the abyss brightened but the snow princess didn't close her eyes against the light.

She blinked in the sudden darkness. She rubbed the armrests of the throne she sat upon – stone. Her ankles flexed, her feet were snug in jewelled slippers. With stiffened grace she rose to her feet and stepped out into the middle of the crypt. Her hands reached up to touch her face. It was all real. She was alive again. Giselle had regained her title as the queen of the ice and snow.

Lifting her arms up she drew the ice above down through the cracks and then shot it back, ripping the rock right out of the ground. The stale air of the crypt rose and the cool air descended like a breeze. Giselle summoned the snowflakes to weave into sparkling wings on her back and she flew up to the world above. She landed on the snowy floor of what was once her throne room. Her lip curled in disgust at the mess that had gone uncleaned for months.

She walked what was left of the promenade to her magic mirror. It stood in the same state that it had been left in when the castle was abandoned: an empty frame, holding onto some slivers of shards at the edges while the rest of the glass remained in thousands of pieces on the floor. She sighed. As powerful as she was with the ice, there was nothing she could do for her precious mirror. It was an heirloom of her mother's but her years of relying upon it had given her sentimentality towards it, no amount of betrayal from her mother could quash her fondness for it.

From up here on the podium, if she turned around there was enough of a gap in the wall where one of her guardians lay for her to see down the mountain. The little town of Disney continued its little life. She scowled. Down there was the tiny kingdom that once again she was unable to overcome.

"I had a power that confined me to a mountain," she sang quietly.
"In a castle just as lonely as it was cold.
I had ambitions to be queen
Of more than ice and snow and dreamed
That I could one day take the whole world for my own."

She turned back to her damaged mirror. She couldn't fix glass but the empty space behind its frame suddenly filled with reflective ice. Her reflection was new and yet the same; her body was thicker and fuller than before, not so waifish in its leanness.

"It was the perfect winter for my plans to come to light," she continued, unclipping the heavy cape and flinging it as far across the room as it would launch. Her voice climbed higher and higher and more raucous.

"I had everything prepared; it looked to be going right
But then it wasn't meant to be
And in a ghastly tragedy
I was robbed of what should rightfully be mine!"

She turned around suddenly. With a sweep of both hands the ice and snow all over the floor slid to each side of the room and jumped up to form large, vicious snowmen.

"The one thing that I simply cannot stand for
Is a warmth and gentle light bright like the sun.
So when that girl appeared
With hair as red as her heart was fierce
I knew that winning would mean bringing her undone."

Giselle took graceful steps off her podium to walk amongst her minions. With a skip she pranced in an improvised formation, just like old times; her legs fluttered like hummingbird wings and she twirled like a petal on the breeze in her excitement.

"I won't let go! I won't let go!
The moment should be mine.
I have earned it, haven't I?
And I know who is to blame,
I'll put out their burning flames…" she paused briefly at the head of her gate guardian, staring blankly at her with dead eyes. Her outstretched arm lifted and she closed her palm delicately.

"…'Til they let go.
Let go!"

She did a dramatic pirouette to face her podium again. The heavy clothes barely lifted and twisted around her legs. That wouldn't do at all.

"Getting rid of her was not a feat so easy to complete,
Especially with the riff-raff always tailing at her feet.
I regret to have ever thought
That I could use her as a pawn
But for each slight, revenge will be more sweet."

She removed a brooch, looking at it coldly.

"I can't rely on mummy dear to make it better," she reminded herself, tossing the brooch aside and shrugging off the first cloak, stepping towards her old mirror as she did.

"She's proven good as any enemy.
I loved her from the start
But she just tried to break my heart."

When she was down to the light dress beneath she called upon her magic with a sweep of both arms. Tiny ice crystals fluttered around her like a shimmering mist. From the hem a glowing pattern appeared, embroidering itself up her outfit. The old threads were replaced with new, lighter, magical material.

"Now I know I can trust none except for me.

"I've let her go. Let her go."

She tore her hair out of her mother's tight twisted bun, discarding the hairpin carelessly and letting it fall messily over her shoulders.

"I don't need her anymore,
I've proven all of that and more."

She stepped onto the first step of the podium and the light blew away like powdery snow, leaving behind her new dress: a white gown with one long sleeve covering her right arm. The bodice fit tightly while the skirt flowed like a waterfall from her hips to her feet. A beautiful cape draped behind her, attached to her sleeved shoulder and anchored to her left wrist.

"And with the power I've achieved
I'll force the worlds onto their knees
Until they bow
To me!"

At the top of the stairs she looked down at her mirror's shattered remains.

"Not least of all, I won't forget that Princess and that boy
And when they both least expect it I'll snare them in a ploy.
If it's each other that they need
That's okay, it's fine with me;
They'll see my heart is not so easy to destroy."

The snow on the podium began to swirl. The snowflakes twisted into menacing little faces like tiny demons. They picked up the glass shards and hauled them into the air, circling the Snow Queen in a sharp, terrifying whirlwind.

"I've let it go. I'll let him go.
If there's one thing more I will not bear
It's fawning like the weak.
I'll let it go… let him go.
I'll renew my rule of ice and snow,
A new life so to speak."

She thrust her hand to the sky and the snow swirled up and up into the sky and beyond. The snowflake demons cackled as they exercised the new freedom they'd been given, scuttling away into the cosmos and over the world with wicked intention.

"I'll forget the things I sought,
Childish dreams that led to nought.
Only one thing is worth coveting
And romance is not that sort of thing.
I'll crack their fragile hearts and then
I'll freeze them through and shatter them!
I'll let him go… to her he'll go."

"In the end I know," Giselle smirked, watching her creation go with cruel satisfaction."They'll let go!"

She cackled evilly and summoned her wings of ice to her back again. It was time to leave. Each shard became a new eye in a new place and through them she would find her foes. They would not hide from her for long.

Above ground a great storm gathered. It was so sudden, dark and violent that it could only possibly have been caused by magic. The temperature snapped several degrees colder in an instant and in the nearby Disney Town people began to shiver. They hurried indoors as the wind gained speed and looked outside in bemused awe. Winter had been over for some time. The weather was meant to consist of blue skies and warm showers but all of a sudden fresh snow was falling from the sky and blowing through the streets.

The blizzard didn't go unnoticed at the castle. The windows rattled violently with the wind and the thunder. Queen Minnie found King Mickey observing it from a tall window. She took his hand in hers and they exchanged worried looks. Mickey returned to looking grimly at the blizzard. It was a bad sign. Sora and Riku had to make their decision soon.