Disclaimer: This is merely a transformative work of Frozen and Final Fantasy X; I own neither property.
Feedback: Always appreciated.
Ships: Elsanna (Elsa/Anna).
Hopeless Desire
Chapter I: It All Began Here
Her mother had tucked her in an hour ago, bidding her sleep. In Anna's opinion it was early yet, however, a summoner had returned from the Briar Desolation that day and she was used to being sent to bed when a summoner arrived from either direction. It was all part of the expected conduct from one of their family. It had long been their family's duty to give shelter to the summoners; a duty they carried out whether the summoner succeeded or failed. A lot of them did lose their nerve in the howling winds of the Arendelle Frostbridge, or in the eerie quiet of the Briar Desolation.
She'd gotten one look at the man—he gave his name as Kristoff—noting a defeated, hollow look about him before she was ushered off to bed. Her father and he talked, Anna straining her ears for mention of the Final Aeon. He made no mention of it and her father did not press him. If he had lost his nerve, well, he was not the first. Had he succeeded, they would know soon enough anyway. It was not done to speak of it; each summoner had to travel alone, even if they were journeying at the same time as another.
Anna stared out the window, snuggled under heavy blankets. The sky was clear, the starlight ghosting into her room. At last she threw off the blanket, hurrying from the room and slipping into her sister's room.
"Elsa!"
There was no answer and Anna raced to the bed, jumping on and shaking her sister.
"Wake up, wake up, wake up!"
Elsa shifted under her blankets before speaking, her voice thick with sleep. "Anna, go back to sleep."
"I just can't," Anna said, turning and looking out the window. "The sky's awake, so I'm awake. So we have to play."
"Go play by," Elsa shoved Anna off the bed, "yourself."
Anna thumped to the floor, singularly undeterred by her sister's dismissal, for she clambered back up, opening Elsa's eyelid. She knew how to get Elsa to come and play. She couldn't know that Kristoff was meant to defeat Sin this night. She couldn't know that by offering Elsa an irresistible enticement, she would change the fate of Spira.
Her voice was teasing, dripping temptation.
"Do you want to build a snow aeoonnnn?"
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The two girls hurried down to the formal dining room, giggling and whispering. As Elsa closed the doors, she slammed her foot down, the floor icing over. A flurry of snow twisted about her hand before she tossed it into the air, creating a snowstorm. They looked at each other and dashed for the furniture. Anna reached the heavy table first and shoved it, watching it slam into the wall.
"Careful!" Elsa said between giggles. "Mother will have your hide if we shatter another table."
"Mother said we couldn't have any ice cream until the villagers came back from the Corona Rifts market fair, but we got ice cream tonight," Anna said, though she was more careful with the next item she handled.
"Allowing us ice cream is a completely different thing to not punishing us for breaking more furniture."
There was a sound of splintering wood before Anna could retort again.
Elsa reached out, snatching Anna's nightgown and pulling her close.
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The roof wrenched itself off, flying into a cyclone. Kristoff jerked up from the chair, staring at the monstrous shape of Sin, swallowing curses as he saw the girls' parents snatched into the cyclone. He prepared to summon the Final Aeon, wondering what shape it would take. The temples' teachings were vague at best about the form; something he thought he understood now.
A giant reindeer burst from the snow. A grim smile crossed Kristoff's face as he looked up at Sin.
A child's defiant scream overrode the howling wind.
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A piece of wood struck Elsa's right shoulder, embedding itself right through. She hissed, staring up at Sin. Anna stood beside her, staring transfixed at the destruction.
Elsa clenched her teeth, raising her right arm, the wood splintering within her shoulder. Sometimes, they had been allowed to see the summoners and guardians. One guardian had told Elsa of Commands. A Command was a form of magic, similar to her powers of ice and snow. The difference was that a Command was sort of a one-time thing: once expended, you had to wait until you could use it again, something that could not be said of her powers. The guardian had neglected to inform Elsa how you knew you had access to a Command.
She looked at Anna and fought back the pain, her arm pointing straight up. When the word of Command came to her, she wondered to herself how it could have been anything else.
"FROSTBRIDGE!"
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Kristoff saw a bolt of ice blue smash into Sin before ice began to fall down, forming some sort of protective cover. Looking towards the Final Aeon, he motioned towards Sin.
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Elsa and Anna swam back to consciousness, staring into the faces of two concerned villagers.
"You're alive?" the man said.
Elsa went still, one arm wrapping around Anna's shoulders. "Our parents?"
"Dead," the woman said. "There looks to have been a cyclone here; that explains why we found their bodies several miles away. Did you have a summoner here? Did he obtain the Final Aeon?"
"We had a summoner here," said Elsa. "I do not know if he obtained it or not. He is dead, then?"
"We have seen no bodies other than those of your parents."
"He didn't!" Anna hiccupped. "I saw his face. It was... he looked like all the others that got this far... Father said they lost courage." She buried her face in Elsa's shoulder, shoulders heaving.
"No hope of the Calm, then," the man said, a scowl crossing his face.
Anna flinched back into Elsa, who disentangled her arm before wrapping both arms around her.
"Come with me, children," the woman said. "A summoner has been sent for from Prydain to perform the sending."
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Elsa and Anna held hands, going through the remains of their home. Apart from the lack of a roof, it seemed otherwise in good shape. It was clear they could not stay here, though they were not homeless: the temple had said it would take them in; orphans were its remit, after all.
"Why do we have to do this?" Anna said.
"Do you want our stuff stolen?" Elsa said, picking up the blankets their mother had given them for their birthdays and folding them around the books of recipes their father had written.
Anna watched as a casing of ice grew around the blanket as Elsa tapped her fingers on it. "No, but I wanted to have our own stuff in the temple."
"It will get stolen. The kids there do not have anything of their own, and when they do, it is nothing half as good as this," Elsa said. "I want to have my stuff there too. But this is all we have left. I am not letting anyone take it away from me. Though I will not stop you; if you want your own blanket, take it."
Anna bit her lip, but shook her head. "I want my blanket and my books." She hiccupped, swallowing tears. "But if they're stolen then I won't have them. I don't want you to do this, but you have to."
Elsa squeezed her hand, the two continuing their task. Far too soon, Elsa was coating the ruined building with ice to prevent anyone entering and they made their way to the temple.
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Elsa stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around herself as she used another to dry her hair. It was scratchy and less than adequate for the task, she realised, as her hair was still half soaked when she threw the towel down in disgust. Reaching for her clothes, she found empty air. The clothes had been the one exception to leaving things behind; there was no point in saving them for later as they wouldn't fit in the end. Elsa hadn't expected that there would be problems the first night, though.
She wrung out her hair, exiting the bathrooms into the dormitories.
"Where are my clothes?" she said, keeping her tone even.
"You can find clothes in the rag basket."
Elsa looked at the girl, before turning her eyes on the rag basket. It was full of rags, none of which looked like they'd be clothes unless Elsa did a lot of sewing.
"Elsa?"
She swung around, staring at Anna, who was holding a rag closed around her hips.
The doors slammed, icing over. The temperature began to drop and ice and snow swirled around Elsa, her blue eyes flashing.
"Whoever was fool enough to take our clothes will return them right now," Elsa said, her breath coming out in frost. "Or we will be having a very long discourse on the value of snow and ice and freezing temperatures."
Elsa took note of the girls who moved to retrieve the stolen clothing before taking Anna off to dress.
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The ice faded from the ruins as Elsa stepped inside. She located her mother's wooden chest, throwing the lid open once the protective ice encasing it was gone. She glanced at the other blocks of ice. As their treasured possessions were released from the ice, she placed them into the chest.
"I tried, Mother," she said to the air. "Three months we have been there, and they do not understand that I have no desire to do anything to them; that if they leave Anna and I alone I will likewise return the favour. I understand my duty to the summoners as heir of my forebears, but I will not put that above Anna. And for the last month I have been dragging Anna away from here to go do her work, to sleep and eat. I see no other option: we must leave Arendelle. I hope Anna will flourish better elsewhere, as I hope I will not have to fight everyone to get the simplest of things."
Elsa was just finishing packing the chest when she heard someone walking in.
"Elsa?"
Elsa iced the floor, pulling the chest along. "Coming, Anna!"
The sisters met in what used to be the dining room, Elsa sitting on the chest.
"Why do you have the chest?"
"We are leaving the temple to go to the Dunbroch Isles."
"We're going to the temple?"
Elsa shook her head. "No. We will find a place. And if there is no place, then we will build one from ice and snow. But we will find one."
Anna nodded, leaning against Elsa. "Good. It'll be nice to have friends again."
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The priest walked out of Arendelle Temple, watching as two girls, one white haired, the other strawberry blonde walked into the distance. He looked at the young woman beside him. "I would give you a word of advice. You came here from the Corona Rifts, so you may not be aware of these things."
"Homes and birthplaces mean very little, but yes, I did."
"When she was four, her parents brought her to me, seeking guidance. I told them to teach her to embrace and use her powers. In another time and place, she might have been taught to fear her powers," the priest said. "Her family has sheltered summoners on their way to and from the Briar Desolation; a tradition that's been their duty since Sin was defeated by Lady Aurora. Both Elsa and Anna were trained in the expected conduct of that role. Elsa latched strongly onto the formality of the role as a way to control her powers. As such, she's reserved, formal and exact."
"I had noticed that, though she appears to connect with her sister. Like as not Elsa lets down her guard down around Anna."
"The loss of her parents and these months as ward of the temple have isolated her, frozen her in a way her conduct and powers never could. Elsa is devoted to Anna; I see little reason to fear her unless she is angered. I've told the temples to say nothing against her powers, as the villages will fear her enough for having them. Their fear will mean she is not driven to use her powers against anyone—they will not wish to feel her wrath."
"Are Elsa's powers an affront to Stefan?"
"Do you care?" He looked at the young woman, who shrugged, picking up her pack.
"Not at all; her abilities are nothing more than exceptional black magic so far as I'm concerned. I know you want me to follow them, make sure they reach the Dunbroch Isles safe and sound. I'll do that. But she won't accept help, not even as a travelling companion. So I'll have to figure something out so that if they are in true need, I can do something. So tell me: what is the official position of the temples?"
"We will neither condemn nor commend."
The young woman nodded. "Understood. Thank you for your help, Father Pabbie."
Father Pabbie stood there until he could no longer see the sun glinting off the woman's hair.
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Elsa wandered the markets of Prydain, a firm grip on Anna's hand.
"Why are we here?"
"Since Lady Aurora defeated Sin, Prydain has been the most important city in Spira," Elsa said. "Remember, the four Maesters of Stefan govern over Spira in the Palace of Saint Prydain."
"I know that!"
"We do not grow much food in Arendelle, or make much clothing," Elsa said. "We get our food from Prydain and our clothes from the weavers of the Dunbroch Isles, which means those goods have to travel. We pay for that with fresh Arendelle ice; remember how Father took us to split the ice apart?"
"You showed off!" Anna poked Elsa. "But... why are we here still?"
"I want to find a trader or someone who will let us join them on the way to the Dunbroch Isles. The marketplace is the best place for that; this is where the traders sell their wares."
"This doesn't look anything like the Corona market fairs."
Elsa exhaled. "I agree."
The girls walked on.
"Perhaps you girls would like a dress?"
Anna turned, staring at the wares that were displayed. She'd seen elegant dresses before, but never so many and all in the one place. She let loose her hand, dashing over.
"I think I have one that will fit you, dear," the man said.
The power began to stir in Elsa's hands without warning. "We need to go," she said.
Anna looked back. "But, Elsa, I wanna look at the dresses!"
Elsa clenched her fists, the air frosting over as she exhaled. "The material's substandard, the quality's been sacrificed for the appearance of quality, it's not made in the Dunbroch Isles and we need to go!"
Anna spun around. Elsa never spoke in contractions. Never. She stared, seeing Elsa's lack of control.
"Elsa, you need to calm down!"
"I... Anna, please, let's go!"
Anna took a step forward before she was yanked back, feeling cold steel at her throat.
"Your sister has insulted my wares, little girl. Perhaps a lesson is in order."
"Get away from her."
Anna swallowed hard at the lack of emotion in Elsa's voice, watching as Elsa's hair swirled in an unseen window. "Elsa, you have to calm down!"
The trader laughed, running the flat of the blade over Anna's throat. "Listen to your sister, Elsa... or you might not have one much longer."
"I can't hold it back... just get away from her!"
The trader turned to look at Elsa, giving Anna's hair a vicious tug, "You need to learn—"
What Elsa needed to learn was never uttered, for Elsa threw her hands out, an inarticulate shriek tearing from her throat. Frost, wind, ice and snow leapt out of her, swirling around in an uncontrolled rage. Uncontrolled it might have been, but there was no mistaking that it was directed: the swirl of her power slammed into the trader, the force sending both him and his stall through the air, halted by the stone walls of the Palace of Saint Prydain.
Anna flew into Elsa's arms, sobbing.
"It's okay," Elsa said, stroking Anna's hair, her hand shaking. "He won't hurt you."
The tears stopped, Anna looking up, a wary expression crossing her face.
"Elsa, you're still—"
"Someone get the guards!"
Ice was frosting the stones, spreading outward from Elsa.
"Do not call for the guards." The voice was harsh, guttural. A woman approached Elsa, holding out a pair of aqua gloves. "Put them on, girl."
Elsa took the gloves, starting to shake like a leaf. The gloves dropped to the stones several times before Anna snatched them up, guiding Elsa's hands into them. The gloves melded to Elsa like a second skin, warm against her icy hands. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, trying to will her power to calm. It did not seem to want to listen, raging through her without a care. It demanded release.
The ice on the stones began to melt.
Elsa's eyes snapped open, looking at the gloves. The power pulsed in her hands, but it did not break free. The gloves somehow contained it, though she could not see a reason why.
Anna wrapped an arm around her as she burst into tears, burying her face in Anna's shoulder.
"Of course it would be him," the woman said, staring at the trader. "I see you were in the right here. Not that it matters. You will not remove those gloves, Elsa of Arendelle. You were going to the Dunbroch Isles?"
"Yes," Anna said, stroking Elsa's back in soothing circles.
"Give me your money for the passage." The woman stared at Anna, tapping her foot. "Well, girl? The gil, and hurry!"
Anna kept up her soothing motions, the other hand going into Elsa's pockets for the gil. She threw it at the woman and turned her attention on Elsa, rocking her slowly.
"If anyone touches so much as a hair on these girls' heads, I will see you in combat."
The woman strode off, cutting a swathe through the onlookers.
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Elsa had long since cried herself out, staring into nothing, when the woman returned.
"We have a boat. Follow me."
"Something's wrong. She doesn't... she isn't..." Anna stood up, brushing her clothes off. There was no reaction from Elsa; the woman stared into her eyes, not seeing even a flicker of emotion.
The woman cursed under her breath. "She's catatonic. Can you manage the chest?"
Anna gave it a kick, watching it skid. "Elsa iced the bottom."
The woman knelt, pulling Elsa up into her arms. "Follow me. It is two days sail to the Dunbroch Isles; one day's sail to Notre Dame where goods will be dropped off."
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Elsa and Anna stepped off the boat, looking around the dark shores of the Dunbroch Isles. Behind them, they heard the not so dulcet tones of the captain and a splash.
"I am surprised he let me walk off the ship," Elsa said.
"We should have thanked her," Anna said.
"We looked," Elsa said. "She was not on the boat that we saw. The captain was so eager to get rid of me that he did not stop at Notre Dame. If she wanted a thank you, she would not have hidden herself. Come on, let us make some torches and get to the village."
Anna kept a tight hold of Elsa's hand as they scoured the beach for materials, finding a well worn path they figured led to the village. If they had faced the water, they would have seen a shape heading for shore. At last, the torches were made and lit, the flames illuminating their faces as they looked at each other.
"You'll be okay?"
Elsa blew out a stream of frost, watching Anna's eyes light up. "I am, yes. We will be fine."
"Elsa?"
"Yes, Anna?"
"I love you."
"I love you too."
The two girls disappeared along the village path.
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Behind them, a girl dragged herself out of the water, wringing out her hair and braiding it into a massive plait. Though the light was insufficient and her hair long, she was done ere twenty minutes had passed. As she checked the plait, she began to hum a song about a flower. Her hair began to glow with the embers of dying sunlight. Satisfied, she followed along the path, keeping the torchlight within sight as she thought.
Elsa's breakdown changed everything; the power the girl wielded could not be allowed to unleash. As long as no one threatened Anna, there was no worry of Elsa being pushed to that edge. It was obvious Elsa was Anna's first guardian, the last defence against threats. Ergo, she would be Anna's second guardian, warning the threats off.
Her first stop was the temple to present herself to the temple priests.
"Call me Rapunzel."